Warm Scales
by Primus1243
Summary: Wolf is now in the resistance since he saw the first version of the XCOM division go down when he was younger. Brash and easily excited, he is perfect for a Ranger role. Though he gain some thoughts about a certain alien creature when it fight backs in his style. (OC x Viper) Will take down image if asked.
1. Five by Five

**A/N: Um…well…the only story that I made that broke ground in a category last time was Awake and Alive, a male human and female raptor Jurassic Park fic. And you know by the sound of things from this and what the images are going around the game so…take a guess.**

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

* * *

They could only take so much. A mind control? Simple, shoot them in the head. Lancers? Shoot them in the head. Snoring from their teammate? A gun butt to the head.

 _ **SMACK**_

"OW!" Wolf yells as he rubs his head and looks to the offender, Owl, their lead sharpshooter, cleaning her rifle butt. "The hell?! I was having a good dream."

"You were interrupting Central." She said trying to get his sweat off the padding.

"As I was saying, this mission is a sabotage. Take out the enemy transmitter and EVAC out of there. Gather anything you can. The commander needs some supplies so you can have those nanosuits you all want. And this is a dark incursion, so watch your step. Resistance reports new contacts that they say use to be Thin Men, patrolling around the streets." Central reports.

"Bloody hell." Catfish, their support and oldest member of the squad since the original invasion, said as he turns his small minigun to check to see if it spins well. "I hated Thin Men before and I'm going to hate it now."

"Don't we all." Tek, their specialist, said as her little GREMLIN friend seems to wave its tiny arms at them in agreement.

Wolf groans as he leans back in his seat and closes his eyes. "Wake me when we get there." He said before the lights in their airship turned red. "Fuck."

* * *

"How the heck do we know where to go?" Tek asks for almost the upteenthed time after only ten missions.

"Central said the commander is leading us somehow, but even they don't know where he is. They said he stayed in one of the towns before heading off and making his own commander center to connect to us." Catfish said running to a wall and looks around it to see civilians going about their daily life.

"Maybe he's on his computer and just chugging some beer while leading us." Wolf quipped as he adjusts his sword straps and the commander tells him to do overwatch, so he did as he was ahead of the whole pack.

"Grow up. The commander will never be like that." Owl said watching their movements from the rooftops.

"I'm serious. I mean, you are watching soldiers on a screen moving to your orders. It only makes sense to chug some beer to it. Maybe take a chug every time we scratch one alien." Wolf said looking over the cover he had and sees the large square ahead full of two patrols and civilians.

"Focus everyone. We need to make a clean mission here. Resistance reports say that the target you are looking for is in one of the buildings around the square. So watch it." Central calls in.

"Owl?" Catfish asks making sure he had a grip on his minigun.

Owl was heard humming a small tune as they see a rifle peeking out over the side of the roof. "Nothing on the right side. Left side is the medical building, but I doubt they would place a good transmitter in there. The one under me is already clear as told by Tek."

"You're welcome." Tek said checking any hacking opportunities.

"And the one ahead across the square is emitting some kind of light and there are more than two satellite dishes on the roof." Owl finishes.

"That's our target building then." Catfish said before they got the message to move around the square. "I like this commander." He said moving around as does everyone else while Tek and Owl tried to stay on the buildings and keep an eye out for them.

"Of course you would. You and him…her…go way back?" Wolf asks as he peeks around the building and notices the path nearby and the street, making him in full view to any curious one.

"Nah. Never met the commander. Though I can tell this one has been around." Catfish said trying to see if any patrols is coming their way.

"We got advent coming your way. Three soldiers. One a Lancer." Owl quickly said.

"Hunker down guys. Let's not spook them just yet." Wolf said trying to see them

"That's a first." Catfish whispered.

"Quiet." Tek hissed as she pushes her flying GREMLIN down out of view from the window.

All the chatter in the radio went quiet as the advents walked past without noticing Catfish nearby behind a hard light wall as he wore red armor and made himself show his back armor more. All they heard from them is mindless chatter they can't make out before they stop at a corner on the square.

"Get behind the bushes. Move low and stay low." Owl said coming back up and watching the square again.

Tek slowly opens the door and heads out while looking both ways before closing it behind her. "Isn't this a bit too easy?" She whispered as she came up behind Wolf.

Wolf scoffs. "Duh. You know the rules." He warns as he takes off his sword to not let it show over the side.

"Can it. We need to get to the transmitter." Catfish said passing them and heading on ahead. "Owl, see anything?"

Owl hums her tune as she looks around. "No. Quiet for you guys."

"Then let's hurry this up." Tek said trying to follow along as they reach the side of the hospital steps. "How the heck are we going to get through this?"

"Run, what else? Can't exactly go around that easily." Catfish said as they got the order to run to the other side.

"I'll tell you when." Owl said watching the patrols.

Catfish hefts his gun over shoulder and grabs a hold of the edge to run. "Wait." Owl said seeing the patrol walk past the steps and waits until they walked past it completely. "Go."

Catfish hefts himself over the side of the stairs and makes a boulder dash to the other end before jumping down and ducking behind the bushes.

"Hold." Owl said watching as Wolf readies himself and keeps watching the patrols for anything. "Go."

Wolf gets himself over the wall and runs as Tek attaches the GREMLIN to her pack and gets ready to run herself. "Hold." Tek held her breath as she clenches her hands. "Go." Owl hissed as she zooms in on a patrol heading their way. Tek growls a bit as she gets up and rushes over before jumping down and laying flat. "Nice job guys."

"Where to now?" Wolf asks only for to receive orders to move onto the building. "Never mind." He said crawling to the building.

They started to try and follow before Catfish holds his arm out and makes them stop as he looks down a path before waving his arm behind him and they move down the side as Catfish kept starting.

"What's up? What do you see?" Owl asks trying to see.

"Thought I saw something. Something…big and long." Catfish said before catching up.

"You sure that isn't yourself?" Wolf asks and makes Catfish get a tick on his forehead.

"Shut up rook." He grumbles as he carefully steps in the door and Tek closes it behind him.

Wolf chuckles. "Oh, I'm not a rook anymore, you should know that."

"Unfortunately, it's not enough training yet." Catfish replies back.

"Guys, just start shooting." Owl said rubbing her head.

They all look to each before shrugging and with Wolf taking out his shotgun, Catfish taking out his minigun, and Tek taking out her assault rifle before they all shoot once or a bit and the transmitter explodes.

"Transmitter down." Catfish said.

"And we stirred up the hornet's nest." Wolf said looking outside.

Owl frowns as she sees all the advent and sectoids converging on the building. "They're all over and I'm being told to hunker down. Sorry guys. Looks like the big guy wants me for a good strike. The only thing I can do is give you a good visual."

"Copy. Do what he says. We can handle it, right?" Catfish said spinning the barrel freely.

"Copy." Tek said letting her GREMLIN fly free and up to the second floor.

Wolfs chuckles as he ties the sword on his back again. "Let them try and get close."

"Be careful what you wish for. You got two lancers out there. Five soldiers. One commander. Two sectoids. Good luck." Owl said as she tried to watch for a flank on her end.

"Copy. Hope the commander has a plan." Catfish said looking to his wrist tablet for anything and marks him as moving and overwatch the area. "I got overwatch." He said moving into position.

Tek looks to hers. "Hackable sensor. Going for it." She said letting her GREMLIN fly off out the back and heads to the sensor before it connects and shows up it can hack it and actually disrupt the alert for reinforcements or give them a few more intel and supplies. "Going for supplies." She said initiating the hack and sees the bar travel along before it just passed the supplies. "Yes!" She cheers and does a fist pump as the sensor goes down and the GREMLIN goes back to her. She smiles as she is told to head up and goes to a building corner.

Wolf scoffs as he peeks out and waits as he gets the order to aim at the sectoid right by the window. "Yeah, got it." He said aiming with his shotgun and fires it and hits the wall but also the sectoid and hurts it, but didn't bring it down. "That's a hit." He calls.

Owl smiles. "Still got more. Don't get cocky."

They all start to duck down and get some scrapes from the laser fire as the aliens and advent shoot into the building.

* * *

Hissing emanated from the building as a weapon with a cycling green energy was picked up off the table and a few buttons on the side were pressed with claws from a regular looking yellow scaled hand and made the energy glow brighter and spin faster before it beeps.

A slithering sound then came about as gunshots and energy blasts with the occasional psionic usage came from outside and the door opened to a large snake like creature that had armor along its front and only midsection while having completely covering up the back end of its head down to a tail like plate armor below the torso.

The snake hisses as it looks to the bright flashes and explosion from the courtyard before heading to it carefully. Seeing some advent soldiers coming up to the building in the way, it hisses to them and points inside and they jump through before trying to shoot from the windows on the far end.

The snake snaps its mouth together before slithering up to the side as it sees the insurgents cowering in a building as they try and shoot at its allies in the courtyard. Seeing one with a handle on its back, it aims its head carefully and reels back its long reptilian tongue.

* * *

Wolf frowns as he aims and fires at a sectoid getting close and destroys the cover which makes it easier to hit for the others. "Scratch one bogey." He said pumping the shotgun.

Owl frowns as she keeps watching before hearing hissing and sees something over the side of the building in the alley. "Guys, new contact." She harshly whispered as she kept watching.

They all look to where Owl is and sees a large thin figure. "Is that a…Thin Man?" Catfish asks before seeing something came at them and wrap around Wolf.

"What the shit?!" Wolf yells as he was pulled back to where the figure is and struggles before something long and big wraps around him and couldn't make him move. "The fuck…?!" He yells and stops at the sight of a female looking snake alien with its tail wrapped around him tight. "Well that's not fair at all. A double whammy." He said bewildered as he stopped struggling for a bit.

The snake tilts her head as the insurgent stopped trying to get out and his words. 'Double…whammy? Is that something humans say?' She thinks to herself before resuming wrapping Wolf tight.

Wolf yelps and felt the squeeze press on his abdomen. "Hey! Buy me dinner first sexy snake lady." He said grinning a bit as he tried to free his hand.

Now she was really confused. 'Dinner? Dinner? I'm supposed to buy him dinner? Humans make no sense. No wonder we harvest them. They are useless.' She thinks frowning and hisses in his face as Wolf was about to be free.

She then heard crackling from his ear. "Wolf! Move your head!" She heard from it before a loud crack was made after Wolf moved his head and a large hole was made into her wrapped tail that made her hiss painfully and let him go. "You're clear!"

Wolf gives a thumbs up above him as he looks to what he can admit was a good looking alien. Too bad it has to die. "Hey, think command won't mind if we take this one back and treat it to dinner?" He asks chuckling.

"Wolf!" They all yelled.

Wolf keeps chuckling as he takes out his sword and gets ready to swing it down on the alien. The snake hisses warningly before moving its tail out of the way and makes him miss. "You have to be shitting me!" Wolf exclaimed as he jumps back.

The snake hisses harshly as the aliens start to go down in the courtyard now that Owl is in the game as Wolf stared down the snake alien in a showdown.

"Well, it's just you…and me…and your backup…and my backup…let's just call it between you and me." Wolf says correcting himself as he held his sword at the ready.

The snake raises an eyebrow at this one's antics before Wolf brings the sword up again and, acting quickly, grabs a thick branch with the tip of its tail and throws it to her and catches it clawed hands and blocks the blade and smirks and hisses as she tries to stand upright on the best parts of her tail.

Wolf hums as he looks to the branch. "Not bad. Been wanting a sword fight." He said as he starts trying to strike every which way but the snake kept blocking him and moving its body around him while trying to get strikes in herself as the last alien went down in the courtyard and a blue flare was shot into the middle as the team went down and heads to it.

"Wolf! We have to go!" Owl yells as the ropes came down from the Skyranger and they were lifted up and a single rope was left behind.

Wolf frowns as he kept trying to strike and gets blocked at every turn. "Damn snake. Fuck this." He said quickly unhooking a frag grenade and throwing it between them and jumps away as the snake leaps the other way as the explosion happens and takes out a few walls for the building nearby and coils up for another strike but finds him grinning and waving as he was lifted up into the flying transport and takes off in it.

The snake frowns and looks to her tail and sees her orange blood leaking from it and finds it can easily be repaired, but would leave scars before looking to where the Skyranger went. 'This one…may not be so useless after all.' She thinks before looking to the sick in her hands. 'I need a better weapon for this one.' She thinks throwing the stick behind her and slithers off, ignoring the pain in her tail for she was deep in thought.

* * *

Wolf laughs and cheers. "Woo! My first sword fight with an alien! I want more." He said as he and the rest of the team were in the research lab as they look over the footage of him fighting the now termed, Viper, in a sword on branch fight.

"Calm down. You could have been killed." Owl said bonking his head and makes him stop.

"Ow." Wolf said holding his head. "You always were the mother hen here. But you have to think, a sword fighting alien. How awesome is that?!" He asks excited at another encounter.

"Which could lead to your death if it came back with a stun lancer." Central said walking in. "What the heck happen Doc?"

Dr. Richard Tygan sighs. "A viper, obviously. But this one certainly picked up skills of sword fighting. Able to hold up to a ranger. Seems we are facing a bigger danger than the regular vipers we may see."

Central then turns to Wolf relaxing in a chair. "Okay jackass. What happened on your end?"

Wolf grins. "Called it a sexy alien. It has boobs by the way. And fought it in a sword to branch fight. Then dropped a frag and run the hell out of there. I'm itching for another encounter with that one."

Central rubs his forehead as the other members of the team shake their heads. "You are injured and will be placed in the infirmary for a bit. No arguing." He said sternly, seeing his reaction. "You'll get your chance to see it, but they will kill it." He said pointing to the others.

Wolf groans. "You have to be kidding…why is there a giant envelope on the screen?" He asks stopping at the sight.

They all look to it and Tygan opens to find it is from the Commander. "Huh. He says, fight her again. And see if you can take it out on a date?" He asks himself reading that.

Wolf grins. "Awesomest Commander ever!"

Central groans along with everyone else in the room except Wolf who was too excited. "You have to be kidding me."

* * *

She slithered along again as she walks behind the gene clinic and into the warehouse as some advent soldiers step aside for her as she heads inside and looks to the heavily locked storage cage and enters her personal password before opening it and heads to the far end to where the insurgents' weapons and armor are placed.

She hisses as her tongue slithers out before heading back into her mouth and picks up the chest on the bottom and places it on the nearby table before opening it to the same weapon of the one she faced. 'Now, I can have dinner with him.' She mused to herself as she picks up the sheathed sword and pulls it out to see it mirrored cleaned and sees her reflection. 'Now to find that wretched human.' She thinks before pushing the sword back in with a clack.

* * *

 **Yep. It's that story and I learned my lesson from my first attempt at something like this from Jurassic Park so let's see how far this sort of relationship can go.**


	2. Bring Flowers and Mice

**A/N: First off, review response.**

 **alexkehling** **-** **Well...ironically...don't want to mention this...but will anyway...is this by any chance hinted at by the certain...rule 34 pic involving a ...ranger(?) and a viper?**

 **Because will admit...found it odd that despite the game not even being out yet...and even the trailer back then not showing a viper...there somehow existed a pic of unhuman thin man...now aka the viper :P**

 **Also...no judging...NO one here can say that they haven't at least looked to rule 34 once :3, because if you say you never did...you a big liar xD**

 **Follow for now nevertheless...fav mabye another ch or 2 more :3**

 **Because it is obvious she is a female because...well...why the fck else would a viper have breasts? xD**

 **Response - Um…check the reveal trailer. Just type in xcom 2 reveal trailer and you will see it has a Viper. And…I'm sure that most of the reasons that people come to this section of fanfiction is to see a little viper on human action…or may be a muton or a sectoid. Yeah…people are weird, but they are their own person. Heck, I'm surprised there isn't much of that in any way. Weird. This is a gold mine to write right now.**

 **Now onto the real author's note. I have expected a strong response, but a hundred hits in two days?! I don't get that in a good day even. Or even reviews right off the bat. So thanks for taking the time and now here's the second chapter of a real sword on sword fight.**

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

* * *

Wolf chuckles as he cares for his sword. "Oh yeah. Going to clean you up for a big fight soon." He said using the whetstone and keeps sharpening the blade.

Owl leans over to the rest sitting on the cargo boxes as they wait for the Avenger to get to the next assignment. "Should we be worried and just shoot the reptile?"

Catfish groans as he keeps rubbing his head from a large headache since they got the message from the commander. "I don't want to piss off the commander. Let's let him have fun and I hope to god that the commander meant by 'take it out on a date' means 'take it out.' Because I for hell don't want to do overwatch on those two at a cafe table."

Tek rolls her eyes as she does maintenance on her GREMLIN. "You know, I got odds on this. Got a high chance the snake might die. A middle chance of them being respectful enemies and try to continue fighting. And a very low, low chance of them getting together. I mean…who in the heck would do that and still cut out it's guts?"

Catfish looks up in thought as he remembered a particular doctor that was in the old underground base. "I know one that would do that."

Owl raises an eyebrow. "Is that person here?"

Catfish shakes his head. "Nope. She's not here, but she was the aliens' worst nightmare. Literally, Death itself for the aliens."

Both women look to him with a raised eyebrow at the thought of having Death on the ship. Though their thoughts were cut short by Wolf chuckling again. "Oh yeah. Nice and shiny and bright." He said cradling the sword like a baby as he wipes it down with a cloth.

The rest groan as they watch him. "Is it too late to get a transfer to another set team from the commander?" Tek asks facepalming.

"Yes." Both Owl and Catfish said as they felt a bigger headache coming on.

"Got that med kit ready?" Owl asks.

Catfish groans. "Don't say it. I may need it more for my age."

Another mad chuckle from Wolf made them groan.

* * *

She taps the blade with her claw tips as she waits for a possible attack from the insurgents and hope that the human is there so she can have a proper rematch. Leaving her with others of her allies staring at her as her choice of weapon was odd to them and wonders why does she not choose a simple gun to shoot at them or using her binding technique on them.

"Sister, why choose such a feeble weapon?" Another viper hissed at her. "They are useless weapons of choice for our endeavors."

She just hisses at her and turns back to the sky and keeps tapping the blade. She knows that they have such an obvious target of a raid on one of their convoys which was taken out by the local insurgent group and is now ripe for the taking. She knew that they would send their best since every single one of them would be ready for a fight near the convoy.

She taps the blade again before hissing to herself and slithers off on her own as her sister hisses almost threateningly at her as she hefts the gun up and almost points in her direction. She slithers along as she goes around the destroyed vehicle and heads down the road before taking a few swings with the blade and tries to find a good way to mostly fight.

* * *

Wolf fiddles his hands like an evil villain as the others just watch. "If he's going to turn into a mad scientist with a penchant for lightning, I'm going to shoot him." Owl said loading a bullet into her rifle.

"Don't bother, he might come back as a zombie." Catfish grumbles as Wolf tests bringing out his sword before the lights turn red.

"Alright! Can't wait!" Wolf cheers getting up.

Tek scoffs. "I doubt your girlfriend would be there. We faced that one in a city far away. I don't think they would enough resources or want to waste time with one alien transport here."

Wolf chuckles. "You'll never know."

Owl just holds up her rifle. "You trifle, I rifle." She threatens as she glares at him and gets ready to run after she places the rifle on her back.

Wolf raises an eyebrow to her. "That's a lame threat." He said deadpan before they all get ready to get out as the door opens and the rope drops. "Me first!" He yells out as he runs and jumps onto the rope and slides down.

"I swear he's got a bigger head since the commander gave him permission to fight again like that." Tek said as they all run and jump onto their rope and slides down to the ground and looks around as the Skyranger drops the rope and flies off as it closes the hatch.

"Spread out." Catfish said as he moves to a large tree. "And Wolf…don't go charging in."

"Who let the wolves out?" Wolf hummed as he heads to a rock.

"Wolf!" They hissed at him and make his communicator ring.

"Ah. That hurt." Wolf said pulling out his communicator and lets the ringing die down. "Don't do it like that again guys." He said putting it back in.

"Then don't goof off. They could have seen us coming in unlike those other times. The commander knows that a high priced mission could contain your girl, but he also knows he needs to keep you alive until then." Catfish lectures as they move up and see two advent soldiers. "Damn."

"I'm heading to the truck. Don't lob a grenade." Owl said running to the truck and hides behind the cab.

"Please, the one you have to worry about is us being mind controlled for that." Tek said moving to the forest side.

"And I for one hate having to resist it like five times." Catfish said moving down the middle.

"And yet you like it when girls control you. You like a little female domination cat?" Wolf teases as he moves along the road.

"Shut up dog breath." Catfish shot back as they move closer.

"No, you quiet and listen to your girls you tail wagger." Wolf kept teasing and Catfish frowns.

"Rookie."

"Bubbler."

"Horny."

"Cat food."

"Hey! I…" Catfish stops as he had himself lifted up and slowly looks to the two advent soldiers staring at him. "Fuck."

"You're lucky we're on overwatch." Owl said shooting the commander and sends him down while Tek down the little guy.

"And look who stirred up the hornet's nest now." Wolf teases as they haven't seen him and moves up as almost every single alien in the area heard them.

Owl groans as she reloads her rifle. "Damn. You and your big mouth Wolf."

"Seriously, I don't think we are going to catch a break with this one around. Can't the commander switch him out for a real rook?" Tek asks moving to a better spot as she takes a shot at a sectoid and hits it, but it was still standing up.

"Are you kidding? We're literally the first and toughest team around." Catfish said standing up and placing his cannon on the tree log he's hiding behind and fires at a trooper and blows his cover away.

"So that's a no to shooting him when he's mind controlled?" Owl asks leaning over and getting guides from Tek's drone and fires away at the sectoid that Tek hit and shoots it down.

"No." Catfish said as they hear Wolf chuckle deviously.

"How about placing him in a cell?" Tek offers moving up.

"Commander wouldn't like that maybe." Catfish said moving far ahead and Owl follows as Wolf was able to give them the aliens' locations.

"You're our commander expert and you don't know?" Owl asks aiming at a commander and fires and sends it down.

"No and I hate it." Catfish said taking out his grenade launcher and launches it to two advents hiding behind a truck and destroyed it and blows it up along with the advent soldiers and sends them flying.

"Cheer up guys. We are getting moola over this so pipe down and take out a gun and start shooting." Wolf said coming around a corner and shoots an advent two feet away and sends him flying into a tree. "Scratch one!"

"At least he's useful for close quarters." Tek said watching the body fly.

"Something that I can't do that well." Owl said shooting off a sectoid.

"We can…to an extent." Both Tek and Catfish said.

"You guys can never match up to me." Wolf said as he runs up and slices an advent hiding behind a tree.

"You kidding? We will never go down to your level." Catfish said shooting a commander.

"And you're just an idiot that loves to rush in head first also." Tek said sending her GREMLIN ahead to place a weak shield around Wolf.

Wolf laughs. "I'm like this for a reason. How else would I be a good ranger?"

"Die." They said.

"Don't worry, we'll honor you." Tek said smiling a bit.

"We'll make a great effigy." Catfish said chuckling.

"And we'll give you a toast in your name." Owl said laughing.

Wolf shakes his head before looking ahead and smirks. "You guys can stop laughing. Commander is now giving me the order to do what I want."

They all stop at that. "Oh crap." They said as Owl looks through her scope and sees a viper slithering close with a blade in hand and a gun on its back.

Wolf laughs and walks to the viper. "Come back for me sexy lady or did you want to go out for dinner with me?" He teases as he reloads his shotgun before putting it away and takes out his sword.

The viper hisses as she keeps moving up. 'It is you who will become our dinner in the end.' She thinks taking an air swing.

Wolf grins. "I see you got a new sword. Awesome. Now the fun of a sword fight can begin." He said as they meet just a few feet away and stop.

The viper slithers its tongue out of its mouth at that and holds her sword back.

Wolf chuckles and gets into a stance. "Let's go." He said before rushing forward and swings downward to block her blade and pushes her arm way back. "You have no training. No matter. I'm sure you'll get it." he taunts as he swings the other way and she blocks it by sending his sword away but he blocks her blade again. "See." He said grinning.

The viper hisses at him and they proceed to move around one another by the viper using her tail to trip him up or wrap around him as he uses it as a jump pad as they kept going at a sword on sword fight.

"This is crazy on what I'm seeing." Tek said having her GREMLIN record this for the Doc to see and research.

"You and us both. Come on." Catfish said rushing ahead with the girls as they try and clear the area ahead.

Wolf laughs as the viper uses her agile body to dodge the swings that she can't reach with her sword. "Come on sexy lady. You and that limber body can have fun another way. I mean, there must have been diplomatic negotiations of the bedroom kind." He said having that classic grin on his face.

The viper glares at him. 'This human is trouble in every way. Both mind and body.' She thinks trying to hit him, but he blocks and she either hits his gun or the ground of where he was.

Wolf laughs as he tilts his head out of the way of a bad swing. "Come on sexy lady. I doubt you can hit anything or catch it." He taunts as he just keeps moving around her.

The viper scoffs. 'I binded you human. I have accomplished that part.' She thinks swinging for him as he jumps and he blocks it by the holding the blade against the body and lets it slide away.

Wolf grins. "This is awesome. A sword fighting alien. What could be better? Well a date might be nice." He asks pulling himself back as they both pant, exhausted from all the movement.

The viper hisses a bit weak as she prepares to swing up, but brought it down as she was tired for the moment.

Wolf shakes his head. "Break?" He asks holding his hand and showing all five fingers.

The viper stares at him and nods as she coils up and sits on her tail and leans against the nearby tree as Wolf sighs as he sits down on the other end. 'Not bad holding up against me human.' She thinks catching her breath back.

Wolf chuckles as he relaxes. "Oh yeah. Best time of my life. I'm in the resistance. I'm a ranger and have a cool ass sword. And I'm fighting an alien that knows how to swordfight. What could be better?"

The viper rolls her eyes. 'How about getting rid of that mouth?'

Wolf leans over and looks at her. "You aren't bad looking by the way. Those scales might be tough and able to hold up to a few hits." He said grinning.

The viper blinks and looks to him confused. 'Did the human…noticed my armored scales? Only the sisters know about this.'

Wolf stretches a bit as he looks to the sword. "Huh. Standard issue ranger blade. Guess you must have got it from a dead comrade. May that soldier rest in peace." He said stabbing his sword into the ground.

The viper raises an eyebrow at this. 'He's honorable. Are the humans of his kind like this?' She thinks doing the same and makes the swords cross.

Wolf laughs. "Wow. You know about how to place a double sword tombstone. I thought you guys don't care much about us, but maybe you have been studying us intimately."

The viper hisses as she turns back around and sits up as she got her strength back and pulls her sword back out and moves away and looks at him, getting herself into a stance.

Wolf smiles as he looks at his tablet. "Time's up." He said getting up and grabbing his sword as he moves a bit away and stands at the ready.

"Should we…do anything?" Owl asks aiming at the viper's head.

Catfish pushes her rifle down. "No. Let's see how this goes. Besides, the commander would be pissed at us for messing it up."

Tek groans as she sits down on a truck bed as the dead alien bodies burn behind them. "I'm surprised that thing is holding up against Wolf. No alien is a match for his swords."

Owl huffs. "Even with that big attitude, he can tear through these guys like paper and now we have something else to fear. Sword fighting aliens. Just think what a sectoid can do with these."

They all shiver at that as they watch the two dance around each other as the blades connect or they knock each other away and try to get an opening, but it wasn't happening a lot.

"Come on sexy lady. Hit me." Wolf teases as he leans to the side and lets the blade slide along his and swings his along her arm before she drops it and catches it with her tail and makes a block before she quickly switches back to her hand. "Not bad. I like your style." He said smiling as he jumps back.

The viper hisses quietly as he gets ready for another attack and holds the blade over her head.

Owl shakes her head as she calls in the Skyranger and throws a flare in front of them. "Wolf, pack it up. We have to go." She radios in as the Skyranger comes in.

Wolf holds up a finger to them. "One sec." He said still watching the viper. "Not bad for an alien. Shall we try this again and maybe make it more fun?"

The viper tilts her head at that. 'He wants a challenge?' She thinks before holding up a hand and makes it level with the ground.

Wolf chuckles as he turns off his communicator. "No armor next time. Just the bare bones of skill."

The viper raises an eyebrow. 'Has to be a trick. Human might have armor underneath skin.'

Wolf smirks. "Well? It could make our fight more exciting and meaningful."

The viper hisses. 'Honor bound hatchling. Fine.' She said lowering her stance and nods her head once as she still watches.

Wolf laughs and turns his communicator back on. "Awesome. Hey guys. I'm coming in." He said heading to the flare and grabs onto a rope at he looks to the viper. "Until next time sexy lady." He said being reeled into the dropship and it flies off.

The viper watches as it leaves and looks to her blade and then her armor. 'No armor. No guns. Just a blade and skills. This must be a battle hardened soldier. Did I just say that human was a soldier?' She asks stopping before hissing and shakes her head as she slithers off. 'I need to eat to get rid of stupid thoughts.'

* * *

Wolf laughs as he does maintenance on his sword. "It was awesome commander. She was able to hold up to a good fight with a sword. And, here's the best part, she agreed to another fight with me. Isn't that amazing?" He asks as a GREMLIN records him and sends it to the commander.

The GREMLIN beeps and moves up and down once.

Wolf laughs and taps the top of the GREMLIN's main body. "I know right? And she's still sexy. Literally, she has these bigOW!" He yells out as a large familiar rifle hits him in the head with its stock. "Owie." Wolf groans as he lays on the ground and the GREMLIN watches him before the rifle hits his head and falls to the ground. "Ow."

Owl pats her hands free of dust as she looks proud of herself. "And that's how to make a good kill."

Wolf rolls his eyes as he sits up and throws the rifle back at her. "Oh shut up mother hen. You have to admit it was amazing. Besides, I got a challenge and this one knows honor."

The GREMLIN floats closer at that and Wolf looks to it as the others raises an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah commander. This one not only know how to fight, but how to be honor bound. She was able to make a sword tombstone. Only honor bound creatures like us know how to do that. So…make a challenge with the idea of making things harder and more dangerous and still have that sword fight and you would have a great fight on your hands…or claws." He said in afterthought of the viper's hands.

The GREMLIN watches him before floating off into the ship.

Catfish groans as the GREMLIN flies past them. "I really hate the idea of whatever the commander has for this."

Wolf grins. "I don't." He said and gets another gun to the head form Tek's assault rifle. "Ow." He said on the ground.

Tek smiles and looks innocent as her GREMLIN floats over and takes the gun and floats back to her.

Wolf groans as he sits up again. "You guys are just jealous I have a girl and you guys don't have partners." He said almost drunk like.

Catfish rolls his eyes. "Please. This time of the war, not a good time to be in a relationship with someone. You however…again, I have no idea what the commander wants from you and that viper."

Wolf grins as he rubs his head. "And you'll never know."

Owl scoffs. "And you won't either."

Wolf blinks. "Oh yeah. Forgot about that."

Tek sighs. "Well, I'm getting dinner. Anyone want to join that isn't a canine?" She asks walking away.

"Here." Both Catfish and Owl said following her.

Wolf shakes his head as he gets up and sits on the crate again as he returns to fixing his sword. "Wonder what sexy lady is doing?"

* * *

The viper seems to growl as she slithers along back to the warehouse and the advent gives her a wide berth at her air of anger around her as she slithers right in and heads to the cage. She stops at the keypad and takes off her sword and sheath and looks at it as she takes out the sword and sees it's chipped edge. She hisses quietly as she quickly enters her passcode and heads in to find the case left behind and looks through it and finds a stone that was in a straight circle with a hole in it and a dirty rag with a container of some kind of clear paste.

She hisses loudly now as she sits on her coils and takes the stone and starts sharpening the sword as she thinks back to the fight and that human. 'I acknowledged that he is a soldier and not an insurgent or a lowly human. What has gotten into me? I even agreed to another fight him with no armor…' She stops and looks to herself and thinks of herself without the armor. 'You have to be joking.' She thinks as she goes back to sharpening and cleaning her sword, trying to get the grinning human out of her head.

* * *

 **Yep, got one out quick. But I need to play more before I get more. Besides, it's only a few days old. Still, cool huh? So…I can really make some weird parings, but they somehow work with premises I make up. The only other problem is heavy details is sometimes not my style as you realized from the fight. I get down to the bare bones and tell it. So be ready for these kind of chapters. Tell the story and still have some personality. Now excuse me while I make the team in the game. Oh, and try and watch out for maybe a possible community of, ah, I'll make it. If anyone is interested in becoming a staff member so I can work on this, drop it in the review or PM.**


	3. Honor Fight

**A/N: Played a lot now. And man did I try hard to keep my team alive. But now, since I got ideas back, time to have some research and upgrades done.**

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

* * *

Wolf hums as he tries to set his new arc sword and predator armor on him. "Damn, we are going to be kicking ass." He said taking his new magnetic shotgun and pumps a shell into it. "Oh sweet baby."

Owl scoffs as she loads up her gauss rifle. "Easy there twitchy. Don't want to shoot a hole in here. Besides, we got these just in time to take down a base." She said fixing her own predator armor.

Catfish chuckles as he stood in his exo armor and makes thumping noises as he walks up. "I think he's just damn well excited like I am. Been a while since we got a decent upgrade. Heck, his sword was first in it."

Tek smiles as she spit shines her Mark II GREMLIN. "Yeah, take it easy Owl. We are all excited for these new toys. I'm surprised the commander was able to get all these to us in time." She said looking to the floating GREMLIN watching them.

Owl sighs and looks to it. "Thanks commander." She said giving a wave.

The GREMLIN beeps and floats down to Wolf and gives him a piece of paper before flying off.

Wolf hums as he reads it and smiles. "Wow, thanks commander."

Catfish leans in. "What is it?"

Wolf grins and stuffs it into his armor. "None for your eyes guys. Now then, shall we get out freakness on?"

Owl clicks her tongue. "Try another one."

Wolf hums as he gets a thinking pose. "How about, who's ready to shoot shit up?"

Catfish whistles to them and holds up his arm and a little pad on his arm comes out and shows a rocket at the ready. "Got it here."

Tek whistles to them and tosses a grenade up and down. "How about this one?"

Owl sighs and stands up and takes her pistol and spins it on her finger. "Just this once." She said smiling.

Wolf grins. "Awesome. Now…where's our ride?" He asks seeing no Skyranger in the hangar before something makes a thud above and the hangar platform is lowered to show four tired and injured soldiers. "Oh, hey guys. How did it go?"

Kelly, the first ranger and soldier on the team, throws her sword at him and he dodges it as it sticks into a crate. "Not…another…word." She said panting as a tied up civilian gets escorted past them. "I'm…never…getting a VIP out like that again. Especially one that doesn't want to be taken." She said limping past them with the others. "I'm going to bed for a long time."

Wolf blinks as he steps aside with everyone else as they limp past. "Well…at least you got the woman."

"One more and I'm shooting. I got one more round." Kelly scolds him holding up her shotgun.

Wolf holds his hands up in defense as a weapon's master takes the sword out of the crate before tossing it to her. "Okay, guess we are going. Shall we guys, so we don't skewered?" Wolf asks turning his head slightly to his team.

He stops and looks to find his team waving from the ship. "Traitors!" He hissed as he runs up to get into his seat.

"No, just smart." Owl said smirking and the door closes. "Now then, don't mess this up."

Wolf looks innocent. "Please, I never mess up anything."

"There was that time you ran straight into an advent trooper." Tek reminds.

"And that time you jumped straight through a window and walked straight into a mech." Catfish also reminds.

"And then there is your girlfriend." Owl said making them smirk a little at his dumbfounded face.

Wolf quickly shakes his head. "None of that matters now. We have an important base to destroy and I won't fail like that again."

* * *

"I FAILED AGAIN!" Wolf yells as he retreats back to his old cover.

"As always." Owl said shooting an advent moving to some cover as he tries to hide from being found by Wolf.

"When is he going to change?" Tek asks as her drone heads to a locked door and unlocks it without even changing any setting.

"I'm guessing never?" Catfish asks taking out his grenade launcher and shooting to the commander and a lancer and cuts out half of their life.

Wolf pants in relief as he hides and the shots miss him. "I'm so not rushing again. You hear that commander?" He asks looking up where a GREMLIN was watching them.

The GREMLIN beeps as it moves above them.

"So…what now?" Wolf asks before ducking his head and a shot went right above his head.

Owl scoffs as the commander and lancer move up. "Wolf, I'm think we will all allow this." She said before they smile at the cry of pain.

"Shocking." Wolf said as orange sparks dance across his armor. The commander yells at him in their language before marking him and he takes a shoot and Wolf yells out at the sharp pain in his arm. "Fuck! He got my arm." He said holding his arm as the lancer seem to chuckle at him. "Oh shut up."

Catfish shakes his head and takes the shoot at the lancer and sends him flying. "You're welcome."

Wolf spits out some foamy water as Tek decimates the commander. "Yeah, you're welcome." He said rolling his eyes as looks at his arm. "You know, maybe not such a good idea to have metal underneath these things."

"Then call engineering once we get back." Owl said moving into the base with them.

Tek shakes her head as she moves up to the pylon and sets up the charge. "You guys, always bickering."

Wolf shrugs. "It's our charm. She's the mother hen. I'm the crazy dog."

Owl raises an eyebrow to him. "If you were the dog, I would have sent you to the pound and had you fixed up a long time ago."

Wolf hisses. "Ouch. Why you have to be cruel?"

Owl frowns. "Because I'm the mother and I have to make sure my family isn't going off the plan."

Catfish sighs. "Can we just blow this place up already?"

Tek tosses the detonator up and down. "Done."

"Whoa, easy cowgirl." Catfish said catching it. "Not just yet." He said as they all try to head to the hole in the wall they made.

Wolf grins and wraps an arm around her. "Ah, don't worry sis. They are just being their usual self."

Tek raises an eyebrow to him. "Like you?"

Wolf nods. "Yes…HEY!" He yells as Tek chuckles.

Both Catfish and Owl smile. "So…guessing we are the parents to these two?" Catfish asks.

Owl nods and chuckles. "Yeah. Though you have to admit. Boarding school isn't working for Wolf here."

Catfish hums. "Maybe a day in the alien training camps."

Owl looks Wolf over as he nuggies Tek's head. "Nah."

Catfish huffs as he gets the message to leave. "Alright guys. Pack it up." He said throwing a flare outside and they walk out before seeing a red flare on the ground. "Fuck." He said hiding behind a tree.

They all groan as they rush behind another tree and a rock. "Great. Now we have to deal with a lot of things." Owl said as they all overwatch the area.

Wolf smiles. "Come on guys. One more set and we run for it." He said as the dropship came in and the doors opened up.

Two advent troopers and a viper lands in front of them. "Girlfriend?" Tek whispers as they didn't see them yet.

Wolf narrows his eyes at them and eyes the viper carefully. "Sword sheath. It's her." He said putting his shotgun away and taking out his sword that made a slicing sound and made the snake turn to him and hiss.

Tek, Owl, and Catfish shoot the troopers at that point and blow them past the viper. "All yours." Catfish said.

Wolf smiles as he walks out from behind the tree and walks up along the path of the slithering viper as she follows alongside him. "Hey sexy lady. Going to keep your promise?"

The viper flicks her tongue at him and takes out her sword and eyes his arc sword as it crackles a bit.

Wolf nods. "Yep. It's a new sword and I'm itching to try it on you. So…here. Snagged one." He said tossing a sword covered sheath to her and she catches it. "Fair game since there is no armor."

The viper eyes the new arc sword and eyes her regular blade before putting it back into the sheath on her back and takes out the arc sword before taking a few test swings. She hisses in satisfaction.

"Okay, did anyone see him grab an extra?" Owl asks frowning as she aims straight at the viper's head.

"Nope. Didn't even feel it." Tek said as she watches out for the Skyranger.

Catfish sighs as he reloads. "Boy is going to get himself killed one day."

Wolf smiles as he unlatches part of his armor. "So…how should this work? One hit and you lose?"

The viper hisses as she reaches for her weapon and sheath and drops them on the ground.

Wolf hums as he drops his shotgun and grenade. "Or should it be three strikes and you're out? Disarm and pin?" He keeps suggesting.

The viper tilts her head and hisses once.

Wolf smiles. "One strike it is then." He said tearing off his gloves and arms for the armor and goes for the straps on the rest.

The viper raises an eyebrow and reaches to her sides and undoes a clasp.

Wolf smirks a little as he tears off his torso armor and throws it to the side as he wore his skinsuit so the armor doesn't pinch him. "Finally get to see the true sexy lady."

Owl frowns. "Oh you have to be kidding me."

Catfish sighs as he starts up a smoke. "Nope. They're doing it."

Tek looks to him. "Do you have to do that?"

Catfish grins. "Father here. I'm allowed to have a smoke."

Wolf smiles as he kicks off his leg armor and the viper tears off her front armor before pulling it to the side and throws it away as the back part of it and her head and tail went flying to her belongings as well. Wolf whistles as he takes in the sight. "Yep. Sexy lady." He said eyeing her well-endowed chest.

The viper rolls her eyes as she didn't bother covering up as she stood completely naked without any sort of armor or clothing. 'No wonder they all wear clothing. It's so they don't stop and drool at each other from a quick and easy strike.' She thinks before holding her sword in a stance as her tail coils up, ready to move.

Wolf chuckles as he stood in his skinsuit that hardly offered any protection other than a little hazmat. "Alright, let's see what we can do without any protection." He said before quickly running at her and makes her wide eyed at the speed he's going and blocks a straightforward strike and pushes him away. "Forgot to tell you, our armor weighs around forty pounds." Wolf said smirking at her shocked look before quickly jumping to behind her and she quickly slithers backward and goes low and strikes at his legs before he spins his sword downward and blocks it. "Not bad." Wolf said as she stood back up waiting for his next move. "Oh and defense is not always the best." He said before jumping at her.

The viper frowns as she starts to block strike after strike. 'He's fast. And he was held down by armor? How good is this soldier?' She thinks fast to herself as she kept moving back before starting to strike at him once she had the chance and keeps watching where he blocks the most as she strikes all over him. 'There!' She thinks seeing him block his left side of his waist more than anything. 'Now…how to get him?' She thinks to herself as she blocks him again from getting too close and even slapping his other hand away from grabbing her.

Wolf narrows his eyes as she eyes his side more than normal. 'She noticed. She's good. But can she reach it?' He thinks as he keeps trying to grab her other arm and hold her, but she kept slapping him away. 'Hope this doesn't become a regular thing.'

The viper hisses and suddenly blocks close to his hand and grabs his hand and ducks under him and twists his arm around and strikes his side with her other arm like she had a sword in it and everything stops. "Not bad. You won for the first time." Wolf said not moving as he didn't turn his head to look at her.

"She did it." Owl said surprised as she aims and keeps an eye on the viper now.

"Well…this is going to make changes." Catfish said throwing his smoke away.

The viper slithers her tongue out before letting go and backing off in the direction of her dropped belongings.

Wolf sighs as he now stretches his twisted arm. "You tricked me. Not bad. It's hard for me to be tricked. But you certainly made it. Now I really want to make a deal with you." He said walking back to his things and puts the arc blade away before reaching into his armor and takes out a piece of paper. "Don't know if you read plain English, but here." He said walking to her and gives her the paper.

The viper hisses quietly as she takes it and looks it over and doesn't recognize half the words.

"It's fine if you can't understand it. The offer is always open." Wolf said grinning a little as he puts his armor back on as she does the same.

The viper watches him dress up as she puts her armor clasps back on and adjusts her plates. "Human." She hisses to him and makes him stop and turn to her.

Wolf blinks as he stops mid-clasping. "Did you…talk?"

The viper nods. "What…it?" She tries to ask as she puts her weapon on her back.

Wolf sighs and smiles a little as he got over his shock. "An offer. An offer from our commander to you." He said pointing up to the GREMLIN that she now notices as she looks up and the GREMLIN waves its tiny arms back and forth. "And…it might get both of us in trouble."

The viper looks at him and tilts her head.

Wolf nods. "Yes. And you might have it worse since you have an honor system."

The viper hisses hesitantly as she heard this.

"Can you hear anything?" Tek asks as the commander shut off their comms.

Owl shakes her head. "Now I know why the weapon's master took that audio mic off of my rifle. Commander didn't want us to listen to this."

Catfish raises an eyebrow. "Skyranger's almost here. He better hurry up."

Wolf smiles a little. "But if you take it, I will give you better chances. Both for sparing and personal."

The viper slithers her tongue out as she thinks and looks at the few words that were there and notices the word 'safe' and 'destroy' were noticeable to her. 'Safe and destroy. I need a translator system.'

Wolf sighs and picks up his gun and sword in both hands. "I'll be seeing ya. Would be great to see you next time if you want another spar." He said before walking away as the Skyranger came in and lowered the rope.

The viper looks up to him and tilts her head as she picks up her two swords and gun and slithers off.

* * *

"Commander, what the heck are you thinking?" Central asks as he paces around the commander center and looks to the GREMLIN. "We saw the whole thing from your GREMLIN and we are wondering, WHAT'S THE END GOAL?!" He yells in its optics.

The GREMLIN beeps and floats around the globe before reaching a console and access it before changing the globe to a picture of the viper Wolf fought and having her image transfer over from the advent controlled country before moving to theirs and looks to Central.

Central blinks and looks to the GREMLIN. "You have to be…"

* * *

"Kidding me!" Owl yells to Wolf as he tries to eat. "You are actually planning on getting that viper on our side?"

Wolf nods. "More like the commander does. I just wanted a good fight, but the commander had other plans."

"That plan included trying to get that girlfriend of yours onto it's good side?" Tek asks.

Wolf nods as he scarfs down a large amount of noodles. "Yep. She's so going to join us. I know it. Now…how far away are we from the next level armor?"

Catfish sighs as he smokes away. "Seriously kid, you are playing a dangerous game. You and the commander."

Wolf shrugs. "No skin off my bones here."

"I think it would be like squeezing your internal organs out of you." Owl reminds what a viper can do.

Wolf then grins at that. "Oh she can squeeze anytime. I think sexy lady is a lot more fun alone."

Tek sighs. "Come on big bro. Get your head in the game. Look, we are taking about a possible troubling situation. Even if we got the viper on our side, who's to say that she wouldn't just kill us all once she has to chance?"

Wolf looks at them seriously now. "Because you give chances so they can prove themselves. If you don't, then you are no better than the evil aliens themselves."

They all stop at that and look to themselves before an alarm sounded out, making them all out on edge.

* * *

"We lost power! We're goin' down, fast!" Central yells as he hangs onto a railing as screens crackle with sparks dancing all around the room and the globe image staticed away.

"Impossible! There is no damage to the engines." Lily Shen, their head engineer, observed as she looked at a good screen. "Unless…they used an electromagnetic pulse. If I could just bypass all this alien circuity…hold on."

"Shen." Central said as he watches the altitude counter tick down and their view of the sky from the window. The GREMLIN the commander was piloting, floats down to Central and takes a grip on his back with its tiny arms. "Hold on commander." He said patting the GREMLIN.

"It's not accepting the transfer." Shen said still working on the many codes flying by. "Interface ready…it's not accepting my commands." Shen said calmly as she kept getting errors.

"Shen!" Central yells at her as the altitude counter went past the danger mark.

"Right." Shen said moving away from the computer and heads to a panel before ripping it off and turns a small dial in it before some power whirs form it and knocks her on her ass from the blowback.

Central frowns as he waits for the engines to kick back in before they hear them whine up and the counter slow down before they went through the cloud cover.

* * *

The viper hisses to herself as she stood in front of the same table she had been for the last hour as she kept reading the message in her own language. What she found goes against everything she has been taught to do for the advent. She hisses again as she looks to the two swords lying on the table as she thinks back to how he fought and how he can possibly take on five of her sisters at once even if they had swords of their own.

She shakes her head and pushes herself away from the table and looks to the tablet on the shelf behind her and the terminal before reading the letter over again and shakes her head at that. 'I'm being dishonorable to my own sisters and soldiers. Why was I chosen?' She thinks to herself as she hears running outside and looks out the window to see some regular troops running for some dropships. A lot of dropships.

The door to the warehouse suddenly banged opened. "Sister! We disabled the insurgent's ship. The elders want us to take it with everything we got." Another one of her sisters said.

The viper hisses to herself at being interrupted from her thoughts and goes wide eyed then at that information as she knows that the human is on that ship. 'But…if we take it…what's going to…honor bound, fight to the death.' She made her mind and turns to the door blocked by big crates. "I'm coming." She hisses before grabbing the tablet and connects it with the terminal before downloading everything she could and luckily, she chooses the most important things before also getting the translated letter off the terminal so they won't track her down. She hears the tablet beep once and looks to see the memory is at max capacity and packs it into her armor pocket before closing the latch on it and grabs her weapon and both swords. 'I'm not letting them touch you. Because only I can make a mark on you.' She thinks slithering out as she left a timed grenade at the table.

* * *

 **Yep. Big things now and I like this base defense then the other one. But truth be told, I was literally two days away from getting defense matrixes up and running before a UFO attacked me. Man, I wish I moved back to HQ. But now that things are picking up, I'm going to drop them slow after the next. So…hoped you enjoyed this one and maybe a bit of sexy lady.**


	4. Change of Tactics

Wolf groans as he places an arm on a crate and pulls himself up. "Did anyone grab the number of that UFO?" He asks as the others in the room pick themselves up from the ground.

Catfish groans as he sits up. "What the fuck hit us?"

Tek shakes her head to get her bearings. "I don't know, but by the look of the flickering lights and screens, EMP."

Owl huffs as she tries to get up. "Well why aren't we moving? I thought this thing was protected from EMPs."

Tek shakes her head. "I don't think it ever was. Probably just cannon and laser shots with the hull."

Wolf laughs once. "What good is that if they try tactics like us?"

Tek's GREMLIN beeps as it tries to start up on the ground. "Oh my baby. Momma's coming." Tek soothed as she went to it and hits it once on the top before the hover pads start up and it starts to hover again. "My baby lives!" Tek cheers.

Owl raises an eyebrow. "If I have kids once this is over, remind me to not have Tek be my babysitter."

Catfish holds up a hand. "Same."

"Yo." Wolf added before the whole room was bathed in red light. "Oh crap."

* * *

"Emergency power, online." An electronic voice said as the room was bathed in red lights and sparks came out from the damaged systems in the control room.

Central sighs as he picks himself up and the GREMLIN on his back flew off and flew around the room and looks at everything. "Someone get me a damaged report." Central orders as he looks around.

Shen was just staring at a screen. "We got a problem." She said before a large pulse sweat through the ship and made it shudder and all the electronics scrambled as the almost dead globe became static for a bit.

"Only one?" Central asks sarcastically as he looks to the screen as well of their ship and something a bit away.

Shen frowns. "They just drop…some sort of spike outside." Shen tries to explain as a scan of the spike shows it was alien in design. "It's generating the same type of pulse that knocked us out of the sky."

Central then realizes why they used EMPs. "They don't want us. They want the ship. Isn't there some way you can…override it?" He asks as another pulse went through the ship and kept going at a certain interval.

"Not from here. I can't get the engines online while it's out there." Shen said looking a bit worried.

Central frowns and looks to the GREMLIN coming to them. "Commander, we are going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Destroying that spike is the only way to get out of here. We can't let the aliens take this ship. Head down to the armory and then engineering. There should be a ramp to the outside where the spike will be straight ahead."

The GREMLIN beeps before flying off as another pulse hits. "I'm hating that." Shen said as every pulse knocks out a line of work as she made three each time.

"Well see what you can do and I'll watch the situation that's coming to us." Central said seeing faint blips of enemy ships coming their way.

* * *

The GREMLIN quickly flies down the hall and hits Wolf's head. "Ow. Commander?" Wolf asks rubbing his head.

The GREMLIN beeps and flies down the hall and everyone ducks as it flew past. "Commander?" Tek asks seeing the GREMLIN fly before it looks back at them and beeps before heading to the armory. "Come on guys." Tek said rushing after the GREMLIN before everyone followed.

Owl frowns as they see the GREMLIN waiting in front of the dress area. "Guys, we got trouble." Catfish said seeing the general screens placed all over the ship and sees that the ship has been placed into emergency mode and that they need to expect hostiles.

Wolf sighs. "An XCOM's operative work is never done. Let's suit up." He said moving to get his equipment as everyone else follows.

"All soldiers, the Avenger will be lost if we don't stop the aliens coming to our doorstep. All soldiers, wounded or well, you are to report to the armory and collect your weapons and armor and go down the engineering bay to head down the ramp and destroy the spike outside. Remember, don't let them on the ship or we are lost for the resistance." Central calls out over the intercom.

Owl frowns as she loads an energy pack in her rifle. "You heard the big man. No damn alien gets on the ship."

Wolf sighs. "Great. So we got a base defense. You know, I'm regretting wanting this to happen." He said pumping a shell into his gun.

Tek smiles. "Be careful what youeep!" She yells as she got a shotgun butt to the head. "Ow." She said falling to the ground.

Wolf wipes his hands of dust. "And don't underestimate me." He said getting his gun back.

Tek groans as she gets back up. "That's what I get for imitating mom."

Catfish chuckles. "You can never be your parents. Now then, let's get going before those bastards make it to our doorstep." He said before running off with the rest following.

The GREMLIN beeps and flies after them.

* * *

The viper taps her blade as her sister and a few advents were with them as they flew to the landing site. Contemplating as she is about to the highest treason she can ever do and it's sitting in her armor pocket.

"Sister, why are carrying those weapons in the first place?" Her sister behind her asks as she kept an eye ahead for the landing zone.

The viper hisses under her breath. "So I can finish them immediately. Not wait for them to die of no breath."

Her sister hisses. "And that is how our enemies die by our fangs."

The viper hisses to her. "And the honorable way is to give them a soldier's death. Not a pest."

Her sister hisses back. "The honorable way is to steal the breath from them so they can't feel it."

The viper huffs and turns back forward to see the large ship ahead. "Well I can prove the honorable way is right."

The advent soldiers behind them just stayed against the wall as the dropship comes to a hover above the field where a firefight was taking place.

Her sister hisses again. "And I will prove the old ways are right." She hisses before slithering down and coils up as the viper does the same. "The one who gives the honorable way will be the victor." Her sister said before the advent soldiers behind them got their heads blown off. "What?!" Her sister hissed as she looked to where the ramp for the insurgent's ship is and sees a long range soldier aiming down their rifle. "Insolent pests!" She hisses and slithers off in the nearby field and prepares to grab one of them.

The viper hisses to herself and gets behind a big tree and looks to see around almost ten of them holding a line and looks behind her to see that their disabler has been destroyed. 'These soldiers, they are laying down their lives for a machine, a vehicle, their home. Give them a place to live and they will defend with their very lives. Like us.' She thinks and sees her familiar sparring partner. 'There you are.' She thinks playing along for now and grabs her rifle and charges it up.

Wolf grins as he sees a lancer coming up to him and he grabs his sword and when the lancer reaches close, he quickly slices him and cuts off its arm as it falls down dead. "Scratch one. Tek, go!" Wolf yells as Tek was caught in the middle of the road that was running through the whole battlefield.

The viper goes wide eyed and looks behind her to see a soldier with a machine floating above her as she ran and, as she passes by, she sees her sister rearing up to send her tongue to grab at the soldier and she quickly turns her gun to her sister and charges up her shot as her sister's eyes widen as she sees the viper aiming at her. "Sister!" Her sister yells and the viper fires and sends the shot through her and makes her freeze.

"Sister?" Her sister asks hurt as she feels the brunt hole in her chest and falls to the ground.

The viper frowns as she puts her gun down and hangs it on her back as the shooting stops and she sees the remaining advent looking in her direction and probably shocked. She slithers her tongue at them before quickly sending her tongue at them and grabs a commander brings it to her and wraps it up in her tail. "The only reason I can be so honorable; I will see my rival live to see another day." She hissed and takes out her regular blade and slices the commander's head off.

"Isn't that your girl?" Owl asks looking through the scope and watching the viper.

Wolf was watching the whole time. "She did it." He said a bit shocked as the commander's GREMLIN came down to their level and was slowly moving the viper as she takes cover against the other advent soldiers, but keeping her side open to the whole team defending the ramp.

"Be careful commander." Tek said to the GREMLIN passing by as she rushes onto the ramp and takes cover by Owl as the others head back as well.

The viper looks to the GREMLIN as it comes up to her and beeps once. The viper reaches to her armor and opens the pocket on it and shows the tablet before closing it up and looks back to the GREMLIN. The GREMLIN quickly zooms over Catfish shooting a hail of bullets at an enemy and takes him down before seeing the commander came up to him. "Commander? Need something?" He asks and the GREMLIN beeps and spins to the viper.

Catfish frowns before the GREMLIN points to Wolf. "You have to be kidding." Catfish said in disbelief that the viper joined their side.

"Soldiers, what's the hold up? Get back into the ramp and let's go." Central calls over the comms before the commander cuts the line.

Owl raises an eyebrow. "Commander? What are you doing?" She asks trying to get her comms back up.

The GREMLIN beeps to her and looks to the advent before floating over to Wolf. "You got to be kidding." Owl said taking aim and fires at one peeking around a corner.

Wolf looks to the GREMLIN floating to him. "Yes?" The GREMLIN beeps and spins to the viper briefly and before looking to the ship. Wolf looks to the viper and nods. "You got it sir." He said before looking out and rushes over to another tree right next to the viper and she looks at him. "Hey sexy lady." He said not with sarcasm, but of respect.

The viper tilts her head as a red flare lands on the road. She hisses softly to him as they reposition behind the trees to have their backs to the roads.

Wolf chuckles. "So…decided to join us huh?"

The viper stares at him before looking down and seems to frown.

Wolf watches her carefully before sighing. "I'll see to it that you are treated well. We all face the same trouble when we join and are watched if we will turn back to the advent. But…it's family here. Everyone. It's not everyone for themselves." Wolf pauses and sticks his shotgun out and shoots at an approaching advent and grazes him as Owl finishes him off. "Sorry. Anyway, here, you do what you can to help out and we will help out anything you need. If you choose to be here, there will be a grace period of you in somewhat of a cell." Wolf said getting his smile back.

The viper hisses softly and nods before looking to the ramp. "Guys! Let her through!" Wolf yells to the rest and those that weren't his usual team were shocked. "WHAT?!" They yelled as Catfish, Owl, and Tek covered their ears as Tek made it onto the ramp.

Wolf gains his usual grin back as the viper smiles a bit from hearing their reaction before taking out her sword and slices to the side of her and strikes a trooper coming close and cuts through his chest plate and almost slices him in half before she pulls back and flicks the blood off of it and hisses at the dead body as she sheathed her blade.

Wolf laughs. "Yep, that's XCOM baby." He said before rushing the ramp and jumps over the scorched cover. The viper slithers her tongue out as she looks to Wolf and he nods. "Guys, when I say now, shoot at any hostiles there are." He orders as the viper prepares to slither to them. "NOW!" Wolf yells and shoots with everyone else at anyone left and the viper hisses as she slithers close as she can to the ground and rushes over to them and slithers over the wall and goes wide eyed as she landed into Wolf who was reloading and she didn't see him until it was too late. Soon, all the shooting stops and everything looks to them.

"Sexy lady, if you want that, you have to wait."

"Wolf, let's just go." Owl said as they all head up the ramp and Wolf untangles himself from the viper and they head up the ramp as it slowly retracted into the ship and the gate starts to close as they keep some guns aimed at the closing door.

"Shen, are we good?" Central asks as the GREMLIN the commander was piloting, flew in at the last second and flies close the viper as it watches wearily to the door before it slammed shut.

"Yes. We can take off and the systems are getting back to normal. Time to go." Shen said as everyone points their weapon to the viper who kept staring at the door as they felt the ship shudder.

"Everyone hand on and commander…after you deal with the problem downstairs, come up to us in the commander center." Central said not very happy.

The GREMLIN beeps and flies around the viper and grabs her attention and beeps at her. The viper tilts her head as the machine seems to have the movement of a hatchling. The viper reaches up with a claw, but stops when she hears the guns being ready to shoot at her and she stops.

"Sorry sexy lady." Wolf said taking her swords and gun and giving it to the researcher coming in with an evidence case and he puts it inside before closing it and rushes off.

The viper slithers her tongue out and looks to him as everyone kept a watch on her except for Owl, Catfish, and Tek just having their fingers on the triggers, but not aiming at her.

Wolf smiles. "Come on sexy lady. Time for your first room." He said walking away and tosses his gun and sword to the weapon's master who catches it and quickly locks it up as he eyes the viper wearily.

Most of the soldiers followed with their guns raised at the viper as she slithers along with Wolf before he leads her to a purple chamber with a tube in the middle. "Get inside. And…intel?" He asks and the viper reaches up to her armor and opens a clasp and opens her pocket before taking out the tablet and freezes as she hears the guns click. Wolf sighs and shakes his head as he takes the tablet. "Get in. I'll see to it that your…cell…is ready." He said before giving it to the Doc who was coming in and the viper heads into the tube and coils her tail and rests on it as the tube closes up and the Doc starts it up.

"Alright…just stay still. I just need two here." Tygen said to the soldiers crowding the door and they glare to the viper before some of them leave and two stay as they kept their finger on the trigger, but puts the guns down. Tygen then looks to the viper and frowns a little. "I don't particularly trust you…but if the commander does, I will soon follow."

The viper slithers her tongue out and just closes her eyes and rests as the day took a lot out of her.

* * *

"Okay commander, explain to me again. How does having this viper on our side help?" Central asks as he looks to the GREMLIN.

The GREMLIN beeps before moving aside as Wolf walks up and gives Central the tablet.

Central looks to the tablet over and blinks in surprise as he opens the tablet and was able to access everything. "It didn't leave a single encryption for us."

Wolf smiles as he knew that would give a point in her favor. "Yeah, so I guess that this would be taking a long time to sift through."

Central nods as he keeps flipping through the files.

Wolf sighs as he walks away. "Well me and the rest and going to get some sleep. Nighty night." He said waving behind him.

Central looks up to the commander as it floats there in front of him and beeps. "Commander…you are the master of long term planning."

The GREMLIN just beeps as it starts to fly around his head.

* * *

Wolf sighs as he gets into his bed and sighs out loud as he lays down. "Ah. Such a relief." He said to himself before feeling a poke to his head and opens his eyes to Tek who has the bed above him and was looking over the edge. "Yes?"

Tek smiles. "So…you finally got your girlfriend to stay on board. Not bad."

Wolf chuckles. "Yeah. I consider my award in a gold case please."

Tek just pokes his head hard as Owl and Catfish sat or laid down in their bunk beds beside them. "So…we need to watch him sneak out to see his girlfriend now." Catfish said reading a book as he laid down on the top.

Owl scoffs as she sits on the bottom. "You kidding? I'm considering placing an ankle bracelet."

Wolf raises an eyebrow. "Don't you guys have more trust in me?"

Tek grins. "Nope. You are crazy in your ways, but we love you all the same."

Wolf chuckles. "Yeah, you too little sis."

Tek pokes him again.

* * *

The viper opens her eyes as she sees the white robed human working on the computer as she still rested on her coiled tail as the chamber didn't allow for much movement and all she can do is rest up for the events that have happened to her. Though…her thoughts soon turned towards her sparring partner and all he done for her…and even stepping into some lines of fire. One brave human to her can lead to another.

She slithers her tongue out and looks to the soldiers watching her and hisses to herself as she closes her eyes again. 'Maybe…he can bring happiness when I needed it…and never realized I had to get it into my life.' She thinks and slithers her tongue one last time before falling asleep.

* * *

 **If you any of you are wondering, I based the vipers off of Elites from Halo. Their whole honor system and everything. Seem to me that some of the aliens styles and body are based off of famous games like Halo. Still, it's cool to think of what type of society the aliens have on their own species.**

 **Any case, hope you had fun, because this was tougher to write and now it will only get tougher from here…for me of course. Not you guys and girls.**


	5. Getting Settled In

"Sister!"

"Why use such a feeble weapon?"

"The honorable way is to steal the breath from them so they can't feel it."

"Insolent pests!"

"And that is how our enemies die by our fangs."

"Sister!"

"Sister!"

"SISTER!"

The viper gasps as she quickly opens her eyes and looks around quickly before claiming down as the white robed human had left a long time ago and only one soldier was left watching who now has his finger on the trigger when he saw her move quickly.

She slithers her tongue out and hisses quietly before putting her head down again before the GREMLIN, that she recognizes as their commander's, flew right in and beeps to the soldier watching her at the door and gives him a piece of paper to which he reads before he nods and walks away while giving a glare to the viper.

She tilts her head as the GREMLIN beeps to her before leaving as well, leaving her alone as the door closes before the chamber opens up and she became confused.

'What's going on? Are my sisters here to get me back?' She thinks as she lifts herself up before the door opens up again and was ready to grab anyone who would be appearing before her familiar sparring partner came through the door and it closes behind him.

Wolf smiles as he was in his usual fatigues and sighs. "Hey sexy lady. How are you feeling?"

The viper calms her stance and doesn't move from her spot before Wolf walks over to her. "Soldier." She hissed to him.

Wolf chuckles. "Nah. Just Wolf here. And no, we don't name ourselves or our children that easily."

The viper raises an eyebrow. 'Wolf. Such a simple name, but can display such power based on what is known about wolves.' She thinks as she remembers about the packs of wolves they were to watch out for in the woods.

Wolf smiles. "So sexy lady, what's your name or are you given a number so it's like 'Viper 2654?'"

The viper slithers her tongue out as she thinks on that. 'Name. Never needed as much as 'Sister.'' She thinks.

Wolfs sighs. "Well you are going to need a name. Can't keep calling you viper or sexy lady all the time. Even though I like sexy lady. Let's see…" He said thinking to himself. "Excetra. How about Excetra?"

The viper slithers her tongue out in thought. 'Excetra? Excetra is…passable.' She thinks and nods.

Wolf grins. "Great. So now that you got an official name, time for some of great home…ship cooking." Wolf corrects himself as he reaches him behind him and takes out a metal box before opening the lid to show it was mostly meat in there. "Didn't know what you like, so I just got meat for you."

Excetra tilts her head and reaches into the box and takes out a slab of meat that looked like it was cooked and she can feel pieces of something on it that fall to the ground before she opens her mouth wide, making Wolf see her large fangs come out like she was going to bite someone before shoving half of the slab and bites hard and starts to keep biting into it as she swallows it all down before gulping it down whole.

"Oh right. Snakes eat whole." Wolf said who watching the entire time and makes Excetra look to him a bit confused before reaching for another and stops. Wolf smiles as he gives her box. "Don't worry about it. You must hungry after all of that." He assures as she slithers her tongue out and looks to the box before taking out another slab and starts to eat it whole as well.

Wolf sighs as he looks to the computer which is still incorporating the intel from the tablet into the ship and the world map. "You saved us a lot of trouble you know. You gave us black sites and future attacks of where it might happen. Heck, even intel on your alien buddies and how to kill them easy. You just saved a lot of lives." He said walking to the computer and looks over the data passing by.

Excetra hisses quietly as she kept eating, but kept an eye on him. 'And I betrayed them. Let's not forget that. I turned my back and gave them the tail to my sisters and allies.'

Wolf smiles and looks to her. "You got a lot of points in your favor and maybe people will start trusting you more. Give it time. For now, I have to go so finish up. And it's great having you here with us. Kinda lifted a big weight off my shoulders if you got caught with your friends back there."

Excetra blinks as she pauses in eating her last slab as Wolf takes the box and closes it before she swallows the last bit. 'He was…worried…about me?'

Wolf chuckles. "See ya sexy lady and…I know those are supposed to be poison sacks, but in ours, it's something different. We'll let you have access to our systems so you can learn in time." He said pointing to her chest before walking away. "Bye sexy lady."

Excetra blinks and goes back to the chamber and coils up before the chamber closes on her as he left out the door and only a few minutes later did another soldier came in and took his guarding place.

'These are my poison sacks, but…what did he mean by something different in theirs? Is it to show status?' She thinks looking to her chest and pokes the plate armor over one of her sacs and makes the soldier watching her blush a bit and huff and look away. 'Has to be. Maybe smallest is considered highest position…no. Maybe biggest?' She thinks as she kept poking at her armor and makes the soldier very uncomfortable.

* * *

Central and the GREMLIN of the commander just ended up staring at the large map in front of them. "Um…okay. This is really big news." Central tries to say as he sees the many avatar facilities and possible attack sites which are actually in the zone of the refugee camps. "I'll get the word to the camps for them to start moving to another place. Maybe buy some time." Central said walking to the radio station.

"This is unprecedented. Never have we had this situation before and I doubt the original invasion had this as well." Tygan said on the other end of the map table. "Commander, the way you handle this is amazing. Instead of asking our soldier to take out the viper, you instead told him to make friends with it in the best way possible, fighting. Being able to just get it on the ship peacefully is a feat of itself."

Shen smiles as she messes with a tablet as she walks up. "Even the armor it's wearing, the weapons it has, this is amazing in itself. I can't wait until the autopsy of a live alien is recorded."

All the lights and systems go out at that point as everyone looked to clues as to what caused it and then sees a red light bathed the room and follows the source to the commander's GREMLIN. It beeps a few times at them before beeping fast as it shakes around in place like it was dodging something.

"Hang on commander." Central said holding his hands up and makes the GREMLIN stop. "It's still your call. Keep or kill."

The GREMLIN beeps fast at him.

Central nods. "Keep it is then. So I guess the autopsies are out."

Tygan sighs. "Well…we can observe how it works on the day to day life in the ship. Better than making it go through the torture of death."

Shen raises an eyebrow. "Or we can ask it."

Tygan looks to her. "How do we know if it will respond well or even know what to say?"

"Enough." Central said getting in between them as the systems and lights come back on. "Thank you commander. For now, it's interrogation. I'll handle it." Central said walking away.

Shen raises an eyebrow. "This will be an interesting part of the war."

"I couldn't agree more." Tygan said.

* * *

Wolf sighs as he lays down on his bed. "Cut it out Tek. Not in the mood." He said as Tek stopped poking him.

Tek smiles. "What's wrong bro? Missing your girl?"

Wolf shakes his head. "Nope, just have to deal with the thought of what the interrogation is going on right now."

Owl hums as she cleans her rifle. "Maybe it won't be as bad since she gave all that info. Kelly's team is up and about handling it all…and the commander is with them." She realized.

Wolf sits up. "Which means no third party." He said with fear.

Catfish raises an eyebrow as he laid on his bed and smokes a cigar. "You better run boy."

Wolf quickly runs off as Tek sends her GREMLIN to follow.

* * *

"Okay, so…care to tell me where the lead facility is?" Central asks sitting on the other side of the large table with Excetra being cuffed to the table and her tail being strapped together. "I know you can understand some aspect of human language, so here." He said sliding a tablet to her that held only a writing program on screen. "Type out where the lead facility on the avatar project is."

Excetra slithers her tongue out a bit before just staring at the tablet.

Central shakes his head. "Look, either tell us where it is or just a facility where it can lead us to it."

Excetra hisses quietly as she reaches for the tablet and the guards at the door makes their weapons hum as they start it up and makes Excetra stop for a moment before taking the tablet and starts to type out coordinates and quickly pushes it over to Central.

Central keeps a level stare on Excetra before looking at the tablet. "Here huh? Is this the right place?"

Excetra nods as she eyes the guards behind him.

Central eyes Excetra before nodding. "If this is true, you may get out of this yet." He said before getting up and leaving as Excetra slithers her tongue at him before the guards hefts her up and leads her out of the door and she looks surprised at the sight of her sparring partner near the door who was probably looking through the one-way mirror while a GREMLIN floats by him and seems to follow her. Wolf stares at her carefully before the guards push her away and leads her to a heavy class cell and pushes her inside and takes the cuffs and binds off her hands and tail before they lock the door behind her.

'Wolf…I wish it could be over so we may spar to our heart's content.' She thinks and sits down on the small hanging slab of metal with only a thin sheet and one pillow while a sink stood on side of the cell while a toilet on another. 'Passable. At least I can be safe in here. But Wolf…why am I that worried about him?'

Her thoughts were interrupted as a heavy grinding sound came from the door as a piece of metal slides across the bottom and a tray of meat slid through it before it closes up. 'Maybe…I can be happy here. Just maybe. After all, happiness wasn't the goal for our plans, just…scales, let this be over.' She thinks taking the tray and starting to eat. 'Not bad. Still passable unlike Wolf's. Wonder how he made it.' She thinks before scarfing down another slab of meat.

* * *

Wolf looked worried as she fiddles with his shotgun that the commander has now got them a plasma version including everyone else with their own plasma version of their guns as they flew off to take decimate another facility. "Come on bro. I'm sure she's fine. The commander would never let her die on his watch." Tek said beside him as she checks over her GREMLIN.

Wolf frowns. "It's not that. It's the fact of us being gone, who's there to mediate the whole situation if it got out of hand? I mean, she can lash out and that's enough cause to put her down."

Owl hums as she wipes her rifle with a rag. "Let me tell you something boy. When I was a farm handler, we were able to placate the animals all over. The crazy ones however or those prone to lashing out, we kept a close eye on and if they are a danger to the other animals or us, it's time to be put down. But your girl, she knows better. She'll be fine if she's as smart as we all know she is."

Catfish sighs as he takes another puff of his cigar and keeps checking the joints on his new W.A.R. suit that now had a better armor like the warden armor the rest were wearing. "She's right. I'm sure your girl would be able to hold up on her own. Besides, she did jeopardized her whole life and blood back there and getting us all that intel. I'm starting to trust her myself if you can believe it."

Wolf looks to him. "Strange. Only Tek got into the idea at first. You and Owl are the stubbornest next to the commander and Central."

Catfish chuckles and pats Owl's back. "Yeah, just like mommy and daddy should be. Only we see your girl as like the bad girl that we would never let into the house. Except for the fact she did prove herself quite well. Heck, she gave up to us without a fight. That's an A in my book."

Owl smiles. "It'll take some time for me, but I'll get use to it. That snake is growing on me."

"Excetra. Her name is Excetra. Kinda easier than sexy lady and viper at times." Wolf corrects and makes everyone look to him.

"So you're past the naming stage?" Owl asks eyeing him.

Wolf nods. "Yep. Figure its time to have a proper name now that she's living with us."

Owl smiles. "Then she's your responsibility. Once you name an animal on the farm, it's your problem unless it's big." She said before chuckling. "I remember my first horse too. Loved riding on him through the fields."

Wolf grins. "You rode your first horse?" He asks snickering in his mind.

Owl frowns a bit. "Well yes. Isn't that what you're supposed to do at times to get their stress levels down?"

Wolf snarks behind his hand as he tries to hold in laughter. "Was he happy after a ride?"

Owl nods. "Yes and maybe he can give you a few tips."

Wolf finally laughs as he holds his side and drops his gun to the ground. "I don't…think I would want you that way…mom." He said in between laughs.

Owl blinks in confusion before both Tek and Catfish leans over. "He means you 'rode' your horse." Catfish said smirking.

Tek giggles. "Yeah and you had a romp in the barn with him." She said giggling like crazy.

Wolf kept laughing as he tries to get under control. "WOLF!" Owl yells red in the face and makes him laugh even harder.


	6. Change of Pace

Excetra hisses softly as she still curled up and slept on her tail before picking herself up and the guard watching her readies himself for anything as she hisses a bit. 'I'm too rested. I need to move.' She thinks before hearing a loud metal thunk and turns her head to it. 'Another group is back. I hope they are well.' She thinks as she keeps slithering her tongue a lot before the door suddenly opens and she became surprise at that and the guard holds his weapon up and points at her as she holds her arms up a bit. 'What's going on?'

The guard frowns. "Don't you dare move." He warns as his gun charges up.

Excetra hisses a bit before the door suddenly opens and the commander's GREMLIN flies in and floats in between them and beeps. "What is it commander? In fact, why is the door opened?" The guard asks.

The GREMLIN beeps before moving to Excetra and beeps at her before flying out a bit and looks back and beeps at her again. Excetra tilts her head as she slowly slithers out and keeps her arms up as the guard keeps a shot on her as the GREMLIN floats along down the hall now as she now relaxes a bit and follows a bit faster as the GREMLIN seems to beep a bit more like a tune. 'What is their leader thinking?'

The guard frowns as he follows with his gun raise at her. "Commander…?" He asks before the GREMLIN beeps at him as it quickly turns to him before turning back around and keeps beeping and now swinging back and forth as it beeps a tune. "What the fuck?" The guard asks confused as to why the GREMLIN is singing and dancing now.

The GREMLIN finally stops at a door before it opens and Excetra stops at the sight of the large room that was now obviously a food area and makes everyone in the room cooking and eating stop and stare at the sight of the resident viper on board at the doorway. "Um…commander?" Shen asks confused as she sat at a table and pauses in her eating.

The GREMLIN beeps and floats to a corner table and waves Excetra over by swinging its body around. Excetra blinks and slowly slithers over and moves to the table and slithers her tail in the corner before sitting down and the GREMLIN seems to beep snicker as it floats away before pushing the guard keeping an eye on her and actually hooks his suit in the hover arm and pulls him away. "What the heck? How?" The guard complains as he is being pull away and out the door.

Excetra blinks in confusion as she tries to figure out what is going on and why she followed in the first place. 'What is truly going on? I thought I was being transported to the steel room again.' She thinks as she keeps looking around at the worried soldiers and personnel in the room as they watch her wearily. 'Why is their leader like this now? He seemed to have such grand plans during the battles out there.' She thinks before a person walks over with a tray and places it on the table. 'I'm being fed here?' She thinks confused as the person quickly leaves and back to the kitchen as she looks to the tray with a plate of meat. 'Wonder if…?' She thinks and takes the meat and starts to eat. 'It's passable.'

"Okay, the room is quiet. Who died?" Excetra hears and looks to the doorway to see Wolf and his team of soldiers behind them before they look around and spot her as she pauses midbite. "Oh, it's the meat." Wolf jokes as he walks over and sits down on the other side of the table. "Ignore the peanut gallery behind me." He said waving his hand behind him.

Almost half the room left at that point.

Excetra blinks and swallows the meat in her mouth and looks him over and sees how much dirt and charred dust was on him. 'He has been through too much.' She thinks and pushes the tray aside for a bit and, unconsciously, has the tip of her tail move around in her coils shake like a rattle without making a noise. "Wolf." She hisses.

Wolf smiles. "Great, you remembered. So…hate the cooking?" He asks poking the meat with his sword handle that he somehow got out without her noticing and is treating it like it might attack them at any time.

Excetra blinks. "No…like. You…better." She tries to say as best she can with slight hisses.

Wolf chuckles as he kept poking. "Yeah. I am a better cook." He said before hearing a throat clearing. "Except for Owl there. She's a better cooker than me on some aspects." He said grinning to the crossed armed female who is frowning.

"Oh shut it Wolf. At least I try and make it better. All you do is lather it all on." Owl points out and Wolf keeps chuckling.

"Yeah, watch out for her. She's a bit of a wildcard." Wolf warns Excetra before seeing Tek slowly walk over. "Also, meet my pseudo sister." He says and strikes a chord in Excetra's memory over her sisters as she looks to Tek.

Tek smiles and waves as she stands on Excetra's side of the table. "Hi. I like your armor. Really suits you. Have you ever thought of painting a different color or maybe patterns?" Tek asks thinking of the many designs on Excetra.

Excetra slithers her tongue out and looks to her armor and tries to think of herself in a different color armor. "No." She said as she pokes her armor with a claw.

Wolf smiles. "Well if you're going to stay, you need to customize. After all, get a few kills, you earned a little coloring and pattern making. Heck, it's in our rulebook with a side note next to it saying, 'Don't choose obvious stand out colors.'" Wolf said holding up the conduct book which was only a few sheets of paper.

Excetra blinks and reaches out and takes the book before opening it and trying to read it over. 'Confusing language. I need terminal.' She thinks before giving up closes the book and places it on the table. 'If they will ever let me use one.'

Wolf sighs. "I'm guessing you can't read our language much." He asks and gets a head shake. "Well we can fix that a bit. You do understand us, but I guess reading is a bit harder. Heck, I'm sure the commander is already making your ID in the system. Come to think of it, he has been opening doors and everything for you. I guess he wants you to join." Wolf thinks on that as the other people in the room tries to listen in now.

"You sure the commander would really trust her that much?" Tek asks still coming up with ideas.

Wolf shrugs. "Could be. I mean he did make that message for her to join and get as much intel as she could. Heck, we knocked so much off the map, we got free time. When do we have free time now?" Wolf asks before stopping. "You don't think he…"

"Alright you two." Catfish said stepping up to the table as he lights a cigar. "The commander has many reasons for doing the things he's doing. Heck, his plan might be to get this respectful viper on our team and fight with us." He theorizes as he takes a puff of smoke.

Excetra thinks on that as they start to talk amongst themselves. 'Is their leader really bringing me on their team? Would I even be able to face my former allies again like last time? I just did it for the young one of the group here.' She thinks looking to Tek who was trying to argue about what the commander is planning for the ship now. 'She is like a sister though.' She smiled at the fact that she at least has another sister and this one she can teach and hold a conversation with.

"Hey, we got a smile." Wolf points out as he sees Excetra smiling as the others take notice. "I like that. You look better with a smile on your face than anything. How are you liking our little family now?" He asks grinning.

Excetra sighs. "Sister." She said and holds out a hand to Tek.

Tek smiles greatly and grabs her hand and shakes it. "Yep, sisters. And now, I'm going to have a future sister-in-law."

Excetra blinks with confusion as she tries to figure out that meaning of the string of words. "In…law?" She hisses.

Tek chuckles nervously. "Oh right, only basic."

Wolf waves it off. "She'll get it soon enough. She's going to have to since she's living here. Heck, I wouldn't mind this every day."

"Are you kidding me?!" They hear over the intercom and throughout the ship.

"What was that?" Owl asks looking around with everyone else.

* * *

"Commander, you can't be serious. How many crazy plans do you have in that brain bot of yours?" Central asks a bit enraged as he already read the commander's new plan on the table.

The GREMLIN beeps a few times and spins. "Commander, hold still please so he doesn't consider using that knife that somehow is never taken out." Shen requested as she works on his GREMLIN and adds a few modules.

"Commander, we have never had this situation before and you want us to do that? I'm surprised the council isn't firing up at the seams with this." Tygan says.

Shen smiles as she taps the GREMLIN. "All set. Voice box is active. Still need to set up your tiny arms on my end though." She says holding the tablet that held his GREMLIN's information.

The GREMLIN beeps a few times before a robotic voice came through. "The council agreed." The GREMLIN says, causing everyone to stop.

"You can't be serious." Central said carefully.

The GREMLIN gives a shrugging motion with its hover boards. "When have I ever been not serious?" The commander asks and gets no answer. "Thought so. Get it done. After all, it could boost moral greatly."

Central was rubbing his forehead to get rid of the headache at that point. "Or just incite trouble in the resistance and we lose the support needed like before. This is a dangerous gamble sir."

"I know. That's why it will work." The commander says and they can feel the smirk behind the GREMLIN's voice box.

Shen shakes her head. "I'll get the engineering boys started." She said walking away.

"I'll my scientists working on what we can at face value." Tygan said following Shen out the door.

The GREMLIN turns to Central and he sighs. "I'll get word out. But if this incites people to make decisions on their own like you, I'm making sure you are known at this point. You are the best commander, but make the craziest move in this game of chess." He says wishing he had pills now.

"Or suicidal chess." The commander says nonchalantly and Central groans.

"Don't remind me of that gamble of movie move." Central says remembering that squeal of a movie.

The commander seems to chuckle as the voice box tries to keep up. "Well then, you better get started." He said before flying away.

Central shakes his head. "I'm going to regret this once this war is over." He says to himself as he goes over to the comms station.

* * *

The GREMLIN flies towards cafeteria and hovers in and stops as the commander can see that half of the room is empty save for the group he is looking for in the corner. "Team." The commander says making everyone stop.

"Commander…when can you speak through that?" Tek asks wondering how long ago and could he have saved lives with it.

The GREMLIN makes an upward motion that they can see was a shrugging motion if on a human. "Just now. I have been waiting, but needed heavy encryption. Thus, the robotic standard voice you would hear on a voice controlled phone. Anyway, got a little request for our special guest." He says floating over the table and looking at Excetra and makes her stare back. "Though not here." The commander says before floating backward. "Come with me." He says and floats out the door.

Excetra stares at the doorway before Wolf shakes her arm and snaps her out of her trance. "Go on. If he has a plan. you follow or we could end up dead." He said smiling.

"Or captured." Owl points out.

"Or bathed in acid." Catfish says taking his cigar out and stamps it out on the empty tray.

"Or just shot to death." Tek says off handedly making Excetra wonder if these humans are sane.

Excetra shakes her head before getting off the seat and slithers out and follows the GREMLIN waiting for her before it leads her to the control room and makes most of the personal in the room stop. "Hurry it up commander." Central requested as he tries to get on the line for every resistance location he can. "I don't think the boys here want to have a possible hostile in the most important room for much longer."

The GREMLIN makes it top hover boards go up and down in a circle motion before leading Excetra up some stairs. "Just…try to stay calm. We have a slight thing against twitchers." The commander says as he leads her to a door and it opens to a large bedroom. "Welcome." He says leading her in and the door closes behind her once her tail was in. "Barely anyone comes in. Except me…but since I left and got this ride." The commander says making the GREMLIN spin around. "I don't need it anymore. For now, this room will be fixed up a bit."

'Fixed? It's already clean and nothing out of place.' Excetra thinks as she looks around, especially at the items in a glass case.

"Ah, our first muton. Such an easy life and we were having some fun in the war as best we could." The commander says as she leans down to look at more of the items in the case. "Anyway, you will be held in a cell for some time until most of this passes. Wolf will be put in charge of your care as you are his responsibility. He will see to it you are safe, fed, and kept warm. Since reptiles do have a temperature problem and no internal regulator." The commander says going off on the end and makes Excetra looks to him quizzically. "Sorry. Now, you must head back to your cell. Once we get a lot of stuff sorted out, you'll be outside once again."

Excetra becomes wide eyed at what he is proposing. 'He can't mean he will let me go on my own? No. Maybe…fight in a group. Wolf's clutch of family.' She thinks and sees the GREMLIN waiting at the door. 'Looks like it isn't so bad as I thought, but what of the others on the ship? They have to have some doubt of me at all hours.' She thinks as she starts to follow the GREMLIN again out of the room and the control center before heading down the hall and heading lower on the ship.

The commander hums as he leads Excetra along the path and makes the GREMLIN move along with the tune as he stops in front of the door. "Your stop. Just head into your cell and get some rest. You need it. I shall see you again once it is all sorted out." He says before floating away and leaves Excetra as she opens the door and slithers inside and into the cell before the door closes on her and sits down on the slab of a bed as she can see a guard taking up a post on the other side of the room.

'Humans are…interesting creatures. Have honorable intentions like us. I fear of what my clutch sisters would think of this. Maybe they will just turn this place to glass before even looking it over and seeing what's inside. Would they even bother with a runt of the clutch?' She asks herself as she lays down on the bed and tries to turn over before glaring to her armor. 'I doubt I would need this since their weapons are powerful enough to rip me apart.' She thinks reaching for the clasps on her armor and takes it off before pulling away the back end and bundles it up before throwing it near the door. 'At least appearance isn't much of a problem here.' She thinks to herself before looking out the door and sees the guard blushing heavily. 'Or maybe…what if Wolf can react the same way? Would he even like it?' She thinks before laying down again and curls up her tail around her. 'Cold, but no more from others of those close.'

And the guard's only thought was, 'Is this snake even a soldier or is it a stripper?'

* * *

The commander hums a tune as his robotic voice somehow made it an auto tune style. 'Glorious day and it's about to be even better.' He thinks as he works on the ID of the crew and soldiers in his room. "Whoopsy." He says to himself and stops at their new viper resident. "Can't forget you." He says to himself as he changes some of the identification. "And now, no one will. Not even your future enemy." He says as he changes it from 'POW' to 'Soldier'. "Give a first, give a second, strike out on third." The commander says as he makes the passcode to the ship for her. "Live through both and live happily. Live strong, live hard, make a life. Don't let others tell that you are a waste of space. Don't let them see that you are taking it lying down. Instead, coil up and launch yourself. Wrap up the show and bring it down. End what is destroying our life and soon yours. After all, once they are done, they don't need you anymore." The commander says like a poem as he turns to the Avatar counter and sees only four squares empty near the end. "For we are coming and we will end it all. Us and your former ally once we tell the truth. And although it may never set them all free, we will stop you from doing more than you have already done."

* * *

 **Now the whole viperXoc pairing is picking up on the site. About time. Though I hope to not be whitewashed out along with all the other experiences. Too many examples I have seen on other sections and I intend to not be put down. It's not fun in any way. But that doesn't mean I'm dead. Just waiting for opportunities to come out. Besides, it's fun. Can't put a good author down.**

 **Hope you enjoy this and yes, I will include our favorite viper into the fight soon enough. Just give it time.**


	7. Out and About

Excetra coils herself more around herself as she tried to keep warm. 'Why is it cold?' It was actually warm a few hours ago.' She thinks to herself and opens her eyes and picks up her head and looks around before spotting the guard watching her asleep against the wall. 'Did they make me cold as to give more information?' She keeps thinking as she picks herself up and wraps her arms around herself. 'I can't give anymore other than convoys now gone and some transmitters that they placed. I swear, that's all I…why did I confess like that?' She stops and asks herself. 'Oh well, better wake the human and see if he can raise the temperature.' She thinks and slithers to the door and knocks on it and makes the guard shoot awake and glares in her direction. "Cold." She hisses out.

"Forget it snake. Besides, I couldn't do it even if I wanted to." He says checking his gun before standing guard again. Excetra frowns and crosses her arms again. "How about you put something on? You threw your armor away."

Excetra blinks and looks to the armor near her. 'Oh right. I took it off because it was too hard.' She thinks picking it up. 'Better than nothing.' She thinks starting to put it on.

The guard started to blush as she gets dressed. 'Damn. She has to be a stripper.'

Excetra smiles a bit as she felt warmer already before slither back to her bed and lays down on it again. 'Warmth. So much of it. But it's the same as a human body. I'm surprised they can make their own heat.' She thinks before her thoughts turn to Wolf. 'I wonder how hot he gets? He has to be getting a lot of body heat to stay alive in that condition. But that outfit…he is like the strange adventures in the human books. Hood and all. Missing a cape though.' She thinks to herself before she actually imagines Wolf as one of those adventures and smiles. 'He does look passable.'

"Hey snake, food." The guard says pushing the tray of meat in. "Congratulations." He says getting away from the door and back to his post.

Excetra picks herself up again and reaches over and takes the tray and starts to eat. 'At least food is passab…this is…' She stops and looks at the meat and notices the difference. 'It's Wolf.' She thinks before smiling and starts to eat away happily. 'I really missed this.'

The guard shakes his head as he kept watching. 'Damn snake.'

* * *

Wolf yawns as he tries to keep awake. "Anyone bored now?"

Owl raises an eyebrow as she takes out the energy pack on her rifle. "Nope. At least be happy you got a promotion."

Wolf grins. "And it's all cool. Now I'm major and I can shut up Kelly who is still bitching on about it."

Catfish scoffs as he lights up a cigar. "She got promoted yesterday."

"DAMN IT!"

Tek giggles. "Calm down. You both are on the same level now. So quit your griping. You got a promotion, we got more time to mess around since we took off so many faculties in the past two weeks, and your girlfriend is on board. What could be better?"

"A five-star honeymoon suite." Wolf says grinning.

Tek rolls her eyes. "So you can…" She stops as a thought came to her. "Can you two even do that?"

Everyone stops as they stare at Wolf who had a red tint on his cheeks. "Well…it could be possible. I mean she's almost human."

Owl raises an eyebrow. "Really? Kid, I grew up on a farm and this sort of thing happens from time to time from intruders."

Wolf looks to her. "And what did you do with them?"

Owl smiles and holds up her rifle. "I had the old bullet style."

Wolf shakes his head. "Oh brother. At least we have a lot of free time. Can you believe that the commander doesn't have to research now? The lab guys are saying they got almost everything. The only things left is the data pads we got and Excetra's."

Tek nods. "And the commander told them to study all advent ones first before finishing off Excetra's."

Catfish hums as he takes a puff of smoke. "Maybe we can get lucky and find another facility. After all, we are on a roll. Just destroying them left and right. Maybe we can clean up the project by just those sites alone." He says before blowing out the smoke from the side of his mouth.

Owl laughs once. "That's a godsend if there ever was one. Just put up the sign, 'Hey! Avatar Project right here! Come destroy us.'" Owl proclaims.

Tek shakes her head. "When is it ever that easy?"

Catfish grins. "Simple. Never. It's more fun that way. All the challenges and struggles, it makes things more exciting. Especially against the clock."

Wolf rolls his eyes. "I see it as a headache. Why do that when I can have fun slicing everything in sight, burning them alive in their armor." He says smirking.

Owl and Catfish raise some eyebrows at him while Tek groans and covers her face. "Why do you accuse yourself of being a psychopath?" Tek asks knowing the answer.

"Because it's fucking fun!" Wolf cheers.

Tek groans out loud at that point as the two parents just shake their heads.

* * *

Excetra actually snores as the commander, Wolf, and Central stares at her in her cell while she slept. "I…didn't know snakes can snore." Wolf says slightly confused.

Central raises an eyebrow. "Not here either."

"Same." The commander says before hitting the GREMLIN against the door and making a knocking sound.

"Commander, please don't do that." Central advises as Excetra snorts and wakes up.

The commander chuckles or as best the robotic voice would allow. "I need a Mark III anyway." He says as Excetra looks to them sleepily before she goes wide eyed at the sight of Wolf and quickly reaches over where she previously left the armor before stopping.

'Wait. Why was I in a rush to get my armor on?' She asks herself as she now sits up and watches the three outside the door.

Wolf chuckles a bit and holds up a dog collar with spikes on it. "Time to get dressed."

Excetra could have sworn a spring went off in her head and was now annoying her with that noise it makes when it's broken.

The commander shakes his GREMLIN back and forth in a disapproving head motion. "To better explain, you will wear this collar from now on. The spikes have been retrofitted. There are two stages in fact. One stage is where the spikes will actually try and stab your neck if you try anything against us. At that point, only Wolf has the key to get you out of it." He says as Wolf holds up an old style key. "Don't even bother with all the fancy smazeny tech. This thing is old and is revered for the oldest and toughest lock there is before regular keys and then electric took over."

Excetra raises an eyebrow as she gets up and slithers over to the door and stands in front of it as she looks closely at the collar.

"The second stage is if you leave us. Going more than the distance that has been placed from the ship or Wolf here will result in your death. The spikes have a small charge of X4 in them. Just one is enough to make a hole in your neck and there are six of them. Keep your distance. As for now, I think this cell is a little too cold of you. Doesn't your species is about the same as our snakes in terms of cold?" The commander asks as he seems to tilts to the side.

Excetra slithers her tongue out at that as the door is opened by Central. "Yes." She hisses remembering the cold last night.

The commander chuckles. "Great. So much good news."

Excetra frowns. 'My torment is good news? I hate to see the bad.'

The commander keeps chuckling. "She's yours now." He says as he floats by Wolf.

Wolf smiles and drops the key under his shirt that was held by a string. "Thanks commander." He says holding up the collar to her. "Don't worry, spikes don't go toward your neck. But if you try anything, they can be pulled in and try and stab you and I don't think neither one of us want that. Don't worry, I won't attach a string and pull you around like a dog…unless you're into that?" He asks curiously and Excetra hisses harshly at him. "Right. Not a fan." He says tossing the collar to her.

Excetra looks at it and looks it over before opening it and then placing it around her neck before closing it and felt a bit of heat come from the seam. 'Did this…seal?' She asks feeling around for the seam and finds none.

Wolf smiles. "Like I said, relax. That thing is not coming off for a long time. Just be happy I got you a cool collar. Now then, we got a small mission and you are going to help. You'll get your weapons and everything on the ship there." He says walking away.

Excetra blinks and starts to follow as she notices the other male giving her a hard glare as they leave and no guards following her. 'I guess they all saw the explosives placed into the collar. Must make them safe…and wanting to pull the trigger.' She thinks fiddling with the collar.

"Don't touch it too much. You might set it off." Wolf advises as they head up the stairs.

Excetra stops and tries to see if she can see it from her angle, but then looks at a reflective piece of metal on the wall and sees how much the collar is on her and what it looks like. 'It's…not a bad look. Compliments my scales.' She thinks smiling a bit.

"Smile again. That's two." Wolf says looking at her. "Come on. The others are waiting." He says continuing on.

Excetra slithers her tongue out and keeps following him. 'I may come to like this if I at least get outside once in a while. Didn't he say that the collar?' She asks herself and keeps watching him. 'Such a curious human and I intend to figure him out.'

Wolf sighs as he walks up the last flight of stairs. "Hey guys! Look who the commander is telling us to bring with." He says stepping aside and letting Excetra slither onto the deck.

"Hey sis." Tek says waving.

Excetra smiles and waves back.

"Another smile. That's three. Should we give her a prize for every ten smiles?" Wolf asks smirking.

Catfish rolls his eyes. "Oh shut it Wolf. Let's get going already." He says getting off the crate and throws the cigar away.

Wolf laughs as he follows. "Come on. There has to be prizes to give."

Owl smiles to Excetra. "Don't try anything stupid and get in my line of sight." She says hefting her rifle over her shoulder.

Tek smiles. "Come on sis. We got mission and I'm sure you want to get out since you've been cooped up for so long."

Excetra smiles again and nods and slithers along with her and into the ship before coiling her tail under her as the door closes and they took off. "Hey, your tools of the trade." Wolf says tapping a box next to him. Excetra raises an eyebrow and reaches for it, but Wolf slapped her hand away. "Nope. Bad snake." He says smirking as he looks to the collar.

Excetra frowns and stares at him. 'That was a terrible joke.' She thinks and pulls her hand back before relaxing a bit.

Wolf chuckles as he opens the box. "When the light turns red, grab them." He says as they felt the ship move a lot.

* * *

Excetra was snapped awake by a quick shake and looks to see the hatch open and raining outside while Owl slides down a rope and Catfish was waiting for his turn. 'Feels like the day we first met.' She thinks quickly grabbing her gun and attaches the sword to her. 'At least we are not on opposing sides.' She thinks before Catfish jumps out and follows and looks to the rope quickly. 'I just jump.' She thinks and jumps out without using the rope and coils her tail under her and uses it as a jump catcher.

"Not bad." Wolf says taking out his shotgun.

"We're dark. Let's keep this quiet and Wolf…don't grope your girlfriend." Owl says and frowns as she hurries to gain a vantage on a rooftop.

Wolf chuckles and quickly heads to a corner of a building. "Please. I don't grope. I kiss."

Tek frowns as she rushes ahead with Catfish. "And I still wanted to hit you harder bro."

"You know, it's weird since we are like brother and sister when you put it like that." Excetra hears Wolf say as he slithers inside the building through a door and sees civilians and stops as they look at her before continuing on with their conversation. "They don't know she's on our side. This means she can get close to the civilians without trouble." Wolf says as he looks through a window.

Excetra slithers her tongue out as she keeps following the GREMLIN's orders in the air as she spies at it through the window. 'How long can I use this ruse when I go in with them? How long until my former allies out me and plaster my face all over?' She asks herself before heading through the doors on the other side and stops at the sight of the red mech and a commander with a lancer. 'You have to be kidding.' She thinks freezing up.

"Your girlfriend is in trouble." Tek say over her communicator connected to her collar.

"I know. Commander, plans? They are not moving to hide." Wolf asks moving up behind a pillar.

"I suggest aiming for the mech first. That thing can fire like two to three rockets." Owl advises as she peers over the edge. "She isn't going to be able to hold her ruse any longer."

"Line up the shots. Take them. You too Excetra. Take the shot when Owl takes hers." The commander says over the communicator.

"Ready?" Catfish asks as he aims his heavy blaster. "I'm ready here."

"Check."

"Got a line."

"Excetra, get ready to fire." Wolf says.

Excetra slithers her tongue out before stopping and charges up her gun and makes them stand on edge. She hisses before Catfish shoots and hits the red mech and shreds the armor before Owl takes the shot and takes it out as Wolf hits the lancer and makes it fly as Excetra fires away at the commander and Tek follows as Owl follows up with another shot and sends him tumbling down.

"Scratch them all." Owl says keeping an eye on anything ahead.

"What…mission?" Excetra hisses as she realized she has no idea where they are going.

Wolf smiles as he moves up to a lamppost near her. "Simple, data grab." He says pointing ahead to a building on the other side of the street. "Sis will get the data. We watch over her."

Excetra nods and sees the GREMLIN over her point a red laser behind a sign and she slithers over and hides behind it.

"I am seeing a picture forming here." Wolf says snickering.

Excetra blinks confused at that. 'Picture forming? Forming what?'

Owl chuckles as she looks through her scope and tries to look ahead. "Keep an eye out guys. I doubt the next batch would be as easy."

"Got that right." Catfish says moving to a lamppost next to Excetra. "Tek, move up between us." He says and watches Tek move to them behind a trashcan.

Tek hums and looks to Excetra. "How are you doing sis?"

Excetra hisses quietly as she looks ahead and sees a walking patrol of advent soldiers. "Two." She hisses.

"Three." Wolf says rushing ahead out of sight as he hides behind a bench.

Owl hums as she aims down the sight. "Got a line on the commander. Catfish?"

"Got them." Catfish says heading to a large trash bin box and readies his gun.

Excetra hisses as she sees the red dot and slithers low over to it and gets behind a low wall as Tek moves up beside her.

"One…" The commander says as Owl holds her breath.

"Two…" Catfish comes out behind his cover and holds up his gun.

"Three." A massive amount of energy shots went flying toward the commander and Owl finishes him off while the regular soldier was pulled in by Excetra and she wraps her tail around him before taking out her sword and quickly slices his head off and lets his body go.

"One left!" Wolf yells and Tek quickly comes up and shoots at the soldier and that was running to cover and shoots out his side.

Wolf frowns as the soldier calls out to them in his language before aiming and shooting at Wolf and shoots off the top of the bench. "Missed me big boy!" Wolf calls smirking.

The soldier yells at them again before hiding behind the cover. "Take him out." Catfish says moving up to the building.

Wolf smirks and rushes up beside him and takes out his sword before slicing him through the hole Tek made and slices him in half. "He's done." Wolf says flinging the blood off his sword.

Excetra smiles at him as she slithers past. "That's another smile sis." Tek says running up with her as they get behind a building wall.

Owl laughs as she finally comes down the building and rushes to meet up and stops halfway down the field. "What's the count?"

Wolf smiles as he rushes up and jumps through a window and smashes through it that was by Catfish and gets behind a table. "Does it matter now unless we are giving her a prize."

"I think it does. Maybe another slab of meat for her when she gets her next meal?" Catfish suggests.

"Nah, she's now getting Wolf's cooking and he'll give as much meat as she wants." Owl reminds them.

"Got that right." Wolf quips as he rushes up to the next window on the far end and peeks through to the building on the other side of the alley. "We got three minutes. Tek."

"On it. Come on sis." Tek says rushing ahead and stops at the window as Excetra takes the other end. "Shit! We got a codex!" She yells and the codex inside robotically says something to them before it teleports away and into the cover on the side of the alley. "Guys?" Tek calls as the soldiers that is with the codex hides behind the pillar and table.

"Got it." Wolf calls running up and slices at the codex and makes it screech before it splits and half to the lights on it dim down as the new codex appears on the far end of the alley. "Catfish!"

"Take cover!" Catfish calls as he rushes up to side of building and stops at the corner and takes out his grenade launcher and shoots toward the two soldiers inside and hits them both while getting rid of their cover. "Owl. Go!"

"Taking a free shot." Owl says taking out her pistol before charging it and fires at the codex near Wolf and makes it screech like nails on metal before it fizzles out and the metal brain case and part of the spine drops to the ground. "Going for the other codex." She says aiming her rifle and they watch as the plasma shot went into the metal brain cage and makes the codex fizzle out before it falls to the ground disabled. "Tek, make me a hole."

Tek smirks and unhooks a grenade from her belt before cooking it and throws it over their heads onto the building's roof and it explodes and makes a hole before Owl takes a shot at the commander of the soldiers in the building and takes him out. "Scratch one!" Owl calls.

Excetra was surprised as they took down a codex and commander in one wave of motion and only left behind a regular soldier ragged. "Tough…scales…sister." She hissed to Tek.

Tek smiles and pushes her head down and makes her bend down as the soldier takes a shot at them. "If that's a compliment sis, I'll take it. If it's like tough luck, we'll make our own."

Excetra smiles and quickly stands up and whips her tongue out before grabbing the soldier and pulls him in as she holds her sword out and runs the sword through him as she reels her tongue in and then pushes him off the blade. "Done."

"Two kills. We need another counter." Wolf says as Tek sends her GREMLIN into the building and hacks into the terminal inside.

Owl hums. "Promotion maybe? We give one to all new recruits if they make a kill."

Wolf grins. "But she is…what rank were you when you joined us?" He asks looking to Excetra.

Excetra blinks at him confused. "Rank?" She hisses as Tek cheers as the GREMLIN finishes.

Catfish chuckles as he calls in the Skyranger and sends out a flare. "Guess we are giving her an official X-Com rank. So…because she has been fighting even on their side, what would you guys say is hers? Sergeant or Lieutenant?"

Owl hums. "Aren't we all high ranked and Wolf is like…what was it? Major or Colonel?"

Wolf smiles. "Major. Maybe she can be a captain since you guys are working on my level."

Excetra blinks as she tries to figure out the ranks. 'What's the highest and smallest if all they say is true?'

"I'll decide that." The commander says floating down to them. "But later. I got a few things for you."

Wolf grins. "Is it a gun that shoots black holes?"

The GREMLIN just stares at him. "Even the advent doesn't have that. Nope, something else."

Excetra raises an eyebrow as everything starts guessing a new armor or guns and ammo as the Skyranger comes down. 'I guess…this is my clutch and family.'

"Guys, time to go home." Catfish calls and Wolf runs past him.

"Shotgun!" Wolf calls grinning as he grabs onto a rope and it pulls him up.

"Dang it bro! Wait up! I wanted shotgun." Tek grumbled as she got pulled up as well.

"First come, first serve sis." Wolf retorts as Owl and Catfish pulls themselves up and the commander's GREMLIN follows.

Excetra blinks as she looks and realizes that there are no more ropes. "Um…hello?" She hisses as she looks up before a rope came back down and she wraps her tail around it and it pulls her up.

"Okay guys. Enough guessing." The commander says obviously tired of it all. "Besides, some of you will love this a lot."

* * *

Wolf taps his foot as Excetra stands beside him in the command center as the commander talks with Central a bit away. "So…what do you think this is about?" Wolf asks as he looks to Excetra as she tries to look dignified, but since they removed her armor for it to be checked over, that's hard to do in his case.

Excetra slithers her tongue out and shrugs.

Wolf smiles. "Yeah, it's tough to figure out what the commander is thinking. That's what makes him a strong leader. He always has the grand ideas like you and well…you can see the result." He says motioning to her.

Excetra smiles as they kept waiting as she fiddles with her collar.

"Another smile for the win. By the time this is over, I expect you to have at least one hundred smiles." Wolf says grinning.

Excetra actually chuckles at that point as she thought about it. 'He could make a good mate.' She mused as the commander's GREMLIN floats over.

"Okay, we are ready now. Here, this is yours. Memorize and burn it." The commander says giving Excetra a piece of paper. "Tek was able to grab a translator from that hack for you. It's waiting for if you can't read some of this." He says before floating away and waits near the stairs. "Come on." He says going upstairs.

Wolf raises an eyebrow and sneaks a peek at what Excetra has. "Oh. It's your ID for the ship. Guess you are getting into good graces right now for Central." He says looking to Central a bit away working on a computer.

"Excuse me?" The commander calls from upstairs.

Excetra blinks as she slithers along with Wolf to the commander. 'Isn't that the commander's quarters?'

Wolf hums as he walks up the stairs. "Commander…isn't this your…old room?" He asks as he remembers that the commander is off the ship and hiding.

The GREMLIN seem to give some dancing motions. "Oh yeah. It was."

They both blink. "Was?" They ask and hiss.

The GREMLIN makes a spinning motion. "It's soundproof by the way." The commander says before dropping a piece of paper and floats away.

They both stayed confused as Wolf picks up the paper and reads it before looking to the door. "You have to be kidding me." He says quickly opening the door and they both become wide eyed at the change in the room from the regular commander's quarters to something of a studio apartment and…a window? "No way. He's giving this to us?"

Excetra stares at Wolf shocked and looks behind her to see the GREMLIN leave out the doorway as it dances around. 'He gave us a room of our own?'

Wolf blinks as he walks in and sees the important things gone like the computer replaced with a regular terminal, probably for security sake on both sides. And the bed was actually bigger and had better sheets, probably from the resistance camps when they made a stop. Then there's the weapons and armor area that was added and actually had their weapons on it. Though no armor, it seems the armor rack is still being prepared.

Wolf slowly turns to Excetra as the door closes behind her. "Did you have any idea of this?"

Excetra blinks and quickly shakes her head as before looking around again and spots the bathroom which seems to be refurbished for both of them, including her tail. "Strange." She hissed.

Wolf nods as he pats the bed. "Yeah, seems top of the line for us. But why us? Why not Kelly and the others? They are a higher level…it's because of you." He says watching her curiously looking around before she looks to him.

"Me?" She hisses as she looks out the window now.

Wolf nods. "Now I know. The commander has been playing matchmaker with us."

Excetra looks confused at him.

Wolf blinks. "It's someone who gets others together for love."

Excetra blinks.

"Mates."

Excetra hisses in understanding as she moves to the bed and feels it over.

"It's warm. Now you can keep yourself warm. I doubt your scales would out here or in that old cell…is that why you wear the armor?" Wolf asks looking it over.

Excetra nods and keeps looking over the bed.

"Also, we have a week off." Wolf says holding up the note. "We have a week free to ourselves. Whatever you want…besides leaving for the advent but I know you won't." Wolf says smiling.

Excetra looks to him and shrugs.

Wolf sighs. "Well…I'll take the couch. You can finally have the warm bed and take off that armor and not worry about being cold."

Excetra looks to her armor before starting to take it off as Wolf heads to the couch and lays down on it. "Night sexy lady."

Excetra stops for a bit and smiles at that before taking the armor off her and puts it on the nearby table before getting into bed and coiling her tail under the covers before looking to Wolf as he mumbles as he tries to get a comfortable position on the couch. She sighs and picks herself up again and takes out half of the sheets and slithers over to him before covering him up. "Rest…Wolf." She hisses softly before slithering back to the bed and gets in and curls back up under the remaining covers.

Wolf chuckles. "You too Excetra." He said covering himself up.

* * *

The commander hums along down the hall as he heads down the hall and towards Tygan's lab. "Oh Doc. I need something for you to research." He calls into the lab.

"Yes commander?" Tygan asks looking up from his desk. "What's the research topic today?"

The commander chuckles. "Simple, live study and not much of an intrusion."

Tygan raises an eyebrow. "And live study of what?"

The commander floats over and beeps. "Vipers. Need to know how close their genetics is to us."


	8. First Break in Weeks

"Rise and shine sexy lady!" Wolf yells and honks an air horn at Excreta and makes her hiss loudly as she shot up and bares her fangs at the offender who woke her up with such an offending piece of sleep combatant.

"Loud!" She hisses and keeps baring her fangs at him.

Wolf grins and taps a dripping fang. "Wow. So that's how." He muses as he throws the air horn behind him.

Excreta hisses quietly to herself now as she crosses her arms. "What…is needed…from us?" She hisses as she slithers her tongue out in annoyance.

Wolf chuckles. "Breakfast." He says simply. Excreta blinks confused before she catches her armor thrown at her. "Get dressed Excreta. Time for you to eat. If you want to wash yourself, go ahead. I'll save some food for ya before someone with a grudge tries to keep it from you." He says walking out fully clothed in his trainers.

Excreta shakes her head at what he is. 'And I choose him as my sparring partner.' She thinks to herself as she puts her armor on. 'I wonder if I can find more armor to wear. This is getting worn and the repairs can only last so long.' She thinks scratching a scorch mark that has a divot in the middle before getting up and slithering out the door and everyone in the control room either tries to ignore her or eye her warily as they kept a hand on the pistols on their legs or waist. 'As with anything foreign.' She thinks shaking her head as she slithers downstairs to the ground floor and heads for the door.

Central watches Excreta leave and rubs at the armband he has in his hands. "I hope you're right about this commander."

The GREMLIN chuckles as he floats by him and grabs the armband. "When have I ever been wrong…don't answer that."

Central smirks. "You mean when you woke up with Shen's GREMLIN in the same repair bay and you two were…"

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO SHUT THAT MEMORY AWAY!" The commander yells as the GREMLIN sparks from the anger he was putting out.

Central chuckles as the GREMLIN floats away while making angry beeping noises. "Perfect blackmail."

* * *

Excreta slithers her tongue out and looks around at the many rooms she never had to chance to really look at and notices that it was mostly a healing area, a factory area that suddenly tinted its window at the sight of her, and a room filled with turrets based on the designs that she had to deal with. 'Humans are not quite as idiotic as we thought.' She thinks as she thought back to the meetings and terminal connections when she was still part of the advent forces and how they talked down about humans.

 **(YouTube: watch?v=jJMIiCVeBKM)**

She then hears something ahead and slithers a bit faster and sees the mess hall and peeks in and blinks confused at the sight of what's going on. 'What is…is this their culture or something idiotic? Maybe the meetings were right.' She mused before an air horn honks in her face and makes her hiss and bare her fangs at whoever it was and stops at the sight of Wolf there grinning as everyone was partying.

Wolf chuckles. "That never gets old." He says flipping the air horn and hooks it on his pants. "Come on. Join in." He says pulling her in by her hand and into the room as Catfish and Owl was dancing together while Tek was working on her GREMLIN and making it dance around as everyone tried to dance with someone else.

Tek grins as she turns her GREMLIN on and it starts to spin and bob around. "Got it!" She cheers as she starts to dance with it.

Catfish laughs. "Best break ever!" He says happily as he pulls Owl to himself.

Owl grins. "You wish we can have something to shoot."

Catfish smirks. "Is that a challenge my lady?"

"Okay guys. We get it. You two are going to bumpOW!" Wolf yells as Owl hits him in the head with her thrown rifle. "How did you get that from the locker in the hangar?!" He asks on the ground as Excreta looks down at him.

Owl chuckles. "I have my ways Wolf. So shut up and let the grownups talk or we will have to ground you."

"You can never ground big bro. He's too much of a hothead to let that stop him." Tek says dancing over and the GREMLIN dances over her head and makes Excreta look to it and tilt her head. "Hey sis. Like the party? We thought of having it since Kelly and her team got the last facility. Now we are mostly free of so much time, we threw a party."

Excreta blinks and looks around confused as she tries to take it all in. "Come on Excreta. Dance with your man." Tek says pushing her to the now standing Wolf who was rubbing his head and makes him catch her arms to stop her.

Wolf blinks as he looks to Excreta before grinning. 'Oh no. I know that look.' Excreta thinks a bit worried of what he might do before he lets go and tries to dance around her and then grabs her hands and keeps making her spin around. 'I knew it. I was right about him.' She then pauses in her thoughts for a moment. 'I was right about something.'

Wolf chuckles before spinning her under his arms and holds a hand to what he presumed to be her waist area, even though her long tail body is all waist. "Come on Excreta. Live a little."

Excreta blinks as she tries to process it all and watches him. "It's…fine." She hisses.

"She likes it." Wolf says happily to the others.

Owl and Catfish chuckles as Tek smiles and gives a thumbs up to Excreta who tries to smile and replicate what she did. "Another smile." They say together.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?!" They hear and the music was hit by a record scratch and they all look to the doorway to see the commander's GREMLIN.

Kelly clears her throat. "Um…sir." She says standing at attention as does everyone else expect Excreta who looks a bit confused as to why the GREMLIN is sparking. "We were just celebrating as to how much we have done in the past week."

The GREMLIN looks to them all before floating to Excreta and looks her over. "And a major accomplishment as well I gather." He says still looking her over. "Well then…you can all…" He pauses as the GREMLIN brings out an armband with a Major symbol on it. "Also celebrate our new soldier. She's going to help lead the charge." He says dropping the armband in her open hands as she looked confused.

"Sir…?" Kelly tries to ask as everyone was shocked at what the viper got.

The GREMLIN then turns to them. "Well come on. It's party time!" He cheers and the music suddenly came back on and he starts bobbing and weaving around as he somehow got Shen's and Tek's GREMLINs and made them dance around him.

Wolf shrugs and starts dancing along as everyone else got back into the groove and Excreta keeps looking over the armband. "Congratulations Excreta. You're an honorary X-Com operative." Wolf says smiling.

Excreta claws at the armband before starting to slip it on her arm as Wolf makes sure it's settled where it needs to be. "Operative?" She hisses.

Wolf nods and hits the armband with the backside of his hand. "Yep. You are a now a Major by the looks of it. Congrats. Hard to get that considering that since we really started fighting back, some of us just got to a Major rank."

Excreta blinks surprised before looking to the armband. "Operative." She hisses as she claws at the armband. "What…do we…do now?"

Wolf grins. "Celebrate. What else? Die?"

Excreta just raises an eyebrow at him at that point.

"Okay, bad joke. Come on. There must be a way you celebrate." Wolf says grinning as he crosses his arms. Excreta tilts her head as she makes her tail rise up behind him. "Come on. Say something you like." wolf encouraged before being wrapped up by her tail as Excreta kept her arms crossed and is now smirking.

"Hatchling." She hisses and reaches out a claw to him.

Guns' hammers were heard and Excreta looks around to see everyone expect Catfish, Owl, and Tek pointing their pistols at her.

Excreta hisses quietly as she loosens her tail on Wolf and lets him go slightly. "Hatchlings." She hisses.

Wolf sighs. "Easy guys. She's not going to hurt me. Look, I'm fine." He says patting himself.

Kelly frowns as she kept her gun aimed at Excreta and slowly walks a few steps toward her. "Back off with that claw."

Wolf sighs and grabs Excreta's outstretched hand and taps the tip of her claw with his finger. "Settle down everyone. Geez. Everyone's always so jumpy and twitchy."

"I'd follow his advice." The commander says still dancing around. "Besides, there are a few bathrooms that need to be cleaned and I have some open slots available." They could swear they can feel the smirk from behind the GREMLIN.

Everyone immediately puts their pistols back into their holsters as Wolf grins. "So…what were you planning to do?" He asks Excreta.

Excreta raises an eyebrow to him before putting her claw to his cheek. "Hatchling…no more." She hisses as quickly swipes him and makes a bleeding cut across his face. "Now…honorary…brother." She says smiling.

Everyone stayed quiet at that as the commander has even stopped dancing. "Woo hoo! All right big bro!" Tek cheers as everyone finally caught up and Catfish and Owl claps with her cheering and everyone else gave scattered clapping.

Wolf groans as he wipes at the cut. "Damn. You got a heck of a set of claws. Maybe you can use those for anyone getting close." He says trying to wipe away the blood.

"I got it." Owl says walking over with a med kit spray and a rag.

"Scar." Excreta hisses as she crosses her arms again.

Owl raises an eyebrow to her. "Ah. Well then I guess you have to just use this." She says tossing him the rag.

Wolf groans as he presses the rag to his face. "Great. At least I'm a brother…but then again, how am I going to get with you if I wanted?" He asks wearing his usual grin.

Excreta tilts her head. "Brother…also…possible mate." She hisses and taps the tip of her tail against his shoulder.

Wolf chuckles. "Awesome. Guess we don't have to worry about marriage papers…commander?" He asks looking over to the spinning GREMLIN.

"I got it!" The commander yells as he was spinning out of control.

"Which one? The papers or the GREMLIN?" Shen asks walking over.

"Oh shut up!" The commander yells trying to regain control. "This is what I get for trying my three sixty moves!"

Shen chuckles and holds up a tablet. "Damn straight."

"Want to get somewhere quiet?" Wolf asks as the commander's GREMLIN went flying behind him, past his head and into the wall on the other end as Catfish and Owl ducks.

Excreta nods and slithers her tongue out and actually tastes the scent Wolf is pouring out. 'This scent…? He's giving out this scent.' Excreta thinks as she starts to follow him and leave everyone else to either party or get the commander's GREMLIN out of the wall.

After a bit of following, the apprehension was almost making her scales rise up like a mammal ready to attack. "Where…we…going?" She hisses to him as the halls and rooms were mostly empty.

Wolf chuckles. "You'll see." He says still walking as he kept looking around. 'Okay, come up with a good spot. Come on man. This is your chance.' He thinks as he panics in his mind.

Excreta raises an eyebrow as she slithers her tongue out again. 'The scent is getting stronger from him. Is that…fear?' She thinks as she watches his reactions carefully.

Wolf pulls at his collar and kept the rag on his face. "Okay, here we go." He says finding a ladder that goes down and out of the ship and starts to climb down. "Come on." He says looking up to her.

Excreta eyes the ladder before sending her tail down first and slowly slithers downward before stopping on the bare rocky ground. 'Desert.' She thinks looking around and sees mostly canyons and dried up plants and trees.

Wolf whistles as he waves at her from another plateau just a jump away from the landing zone. "Come on. It's just over here." He calls pointing behind him.

Excreta slithers over as she looks around at the crates and communication systems scattered about around the Avenger as she finally knows what it was called after a while. 'Warm at least.' She thinks feeling the last of the sun's rays on her scales.

Wolf chuckles as she reaches the ledge and uses her tail and lifts herself up before landing on the plateau. "Where?"

Wolf grins and walks off. "This way." He says looking around for a good spot. 'Shit. Should have read those lame romance books. At least it would work on her.'

Excreta slithers her tongue out again and tastes his scent. 'It's stronger.' She thinks as she follows him to the edge where the sun can be seen touching the horizon. 'What is so fearful…is it me?' She thinks looking to herself and notices that only her armor remained. 'Has he been hiding his fear to not be called a hatchling among his clutch?'

Wolf sighs as he stops at the edge and so does she. "Here we are. Figure you might want the last bit of heat before it gets colder than a snowstorm here." He says watching her carefully. 'Alright, this is close enough. At least I know a bit of romance to woo her. …how do romance a snake again?' He thinks as he kept staring at her and Excreta notices the stare.

"Something…wrong?" She hisses as she slithers her tongue at him. 'The scent is getting even stronger. Would he fear less if I didn't wear the armor?' She asks herself as he sputters.

"Yeah…I'm fine." Wolf tries to say as he chuckles a bit. "So…you enjoying yourself?" He asks trying to make good small talk on the time they got left.

Excreta nods as she looks to the sun again as it slowly sets. 'Fear is still growing. Maybe…' She thinks and reaches for the clasps on her armor and unhooks one before a hand grabs hers.

"What are you doing? You might freeze if you don't wear that." Wolf asks concerned as he notes the distance back to the ladder of the Avenger.

Excreta hisses quietly. "You…fear me." She says slowly as she tries to get out of his grip. 'His strength is stronger. Strange.'

Wolf sighs in a bit of relief, but his mind was telling different. "No. I don't fear you…rather…how the heck I'm going to get this to work." He says letting her go. "I mean…what human ever dated a snake, let alone an alien, before?"

Excreta blinks confused before loosening her strength on getting out of his grip as he still held onto her. "You…fear…relationship?"

Wolf nods slowly. "Just how to make it happen. Not the relationship itself. Besides, we still have to fight and I need to come up with ways to actually date you and be in a relationship in the middle of all this…man, I should have read those cheesy romance books." He mutters as he lets go of her finally and rubs the back of his neck.

Excreta tilts her head at that. 'So it is not my past life. It's his experience. How? Males should have an intimate knowledge of courting and mating.'

Wolf sighs. "Okay. Look…it's obvious I kinda like you."

Excreta raises an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, a lot." Wolf says facepalming. "I really want this to work out. This is one of the few times I like someone this way."

Excreta blinks as she thinks. 'How do the humans I have seen on my patrols do this?' She asks herself trying to remember.

Wolf sighs and wipes his face of the blood with the heavily blood soaked rag. "Okay, this was a bad time and place. Maybe try later. What do you saOHMMMM!" Wolf muffled voice came out as Excreta grabs his head and presses her scaled lips to his.

Excreta kept herself pressed to him as she smelled the scent from him close up. 'His fear is decreasing. Good. But now I smell that mating scent. He actually has a true attraction for me rather than the forced one of my sisters. I guess I do not need to take this off.' She thinks as Wolf starts to relax and push himself into the kiss and Excreta redo the clasp on her armor.

Meanwhile, Wolf had this on his mind. "Dude, we should have given out popcorn and tickets." A version of him says, wearing full body armor and a hood that covered his face in darkness, says eating from a tub of popcorn.

"Maybe we should give him privacy." Another version of him says as he wore civilian clothes.

While the real Wolf version was stuck between them frozen as the brain tries to restart from all this.

The commander chuckles as he watches from a window. "Finally." He says and grabs Catfish and Owl's attention.

"Wow. Kid finally did it." Catfish says as he lights up a cigar.

Owl shakes her head and smiles. "At least those two fighters will be happy."

The commander nods with his GREMLIN as his camera whirs. "Yep. Let's hope so." He says saving the sight to a video file and placing it behind an encrypted file and that behind an encrypted file of its own and that behind an encrypted file of its own.

Wolf blinks as Excreta pulls away, but she still held onto his face. "Wow." He can only say.

Excreta nods. 'I hope I did that right. The humans on patrols don't ever say much.' She thinks as he still tries to regain his bearings.

Wolf still tries to blink and move as he puts his hands over hers. "So…does this mean…we're boyfriend and girlfriend?" He asks blushing hard.

Excreta blinks confused and tilts her head.

Wolf smiles as the Excreta he knows and now loves is back. "Another word for mates before the mating part."

Excreta hisses as she gains the understanding. "Yes. We are…courting." She hisses.

Wolf smiles slowly as the sun finally sets. "Come on. We better get in before it gets cold." He says as he misses how the sunlight looked like in her eyes.

Excreta nods as she lets him and he walks away still having a tint on his cheeks as she tastes the air again. 'Fear is gone. Now…the mating scent. Two mating scents?' She thinks confused as she tasted the two at the same time, but at different amounts.

Wolf sighs as he reaches the ladder and starts to climb. "Don't look up sexy lady." He teases as he grins again.

Excreta shakes her head as she follows. 'He's still the same sparring partner I know.' She thinks reaching the top and Wolf closes the hatch before walking along the halls.

"I had fun. That was the best." Wolf says looking back at her as he walks backward.

Excreta smiles a little at his happy tone.

Wolf chuckles. "Well timeOW!" He yells out as he was trampled by Tek. "Sis!" He yells bringing his head up.

"Sorry! We got a mission! Council important!" Tek yells as Catfish and Owl run by them and follows Tek.

Wolf quickly gets up and runs after them as Excreta frowns a bit at the change in emotion so quick from him and follows him as quick as she can.

"What is it?" Wolf asks running into the armory and jumps to his locker and starts to put on his gear.

Tek frowns. "We have a sabotage and it's right next to an important mission. Commander said it is a codex spot where the coordinates go to. We are doing both and getting the heck out of there or take everyone out and secure the area. We are so not losing this." She says checking the charge on her weapon.

"Which is why the commander has me coming along." Kelly says rushing up to them and grabbing her gear.

Catfish nods as he stamps his cigar out. "Don't shoot our ally." He says eyeing Kelly glaring slightly to Excreta.

Kelly huffs. "I'll try if she doesn't get into my line of fire."

Excreta hisses to her threateningly and she holds up a pistol to her. "I…do not…hurt siblings." She hisses and glares back.

"Enough you two." Owl scolds as she loads a charge pack. "Let's just get this done."

Wolf nods as he puts his sword on his back. "Got that right. Excreta." He calls and tosses her sword to her to which she catches while still glaring at Kelly before snapping her jaws at her and moves to the ship and catches the gun thrown by Wolf and places both weapons on her back.

Catfish points a finger at Kelly. "Don't antagonize our ally." He says lifting his gun and carries it to the ship.

Wolf gives a 'I'm watching you' look before rushing off to the ship.

Tek and Owl looks to Kelly before shaking their heads. "I just hope you accept one day." Tek mentions as her GREMLIN catches up with her.

Kelly scoffs and hefts her shotgun over her shoulder. "Man. Why did the commander get that viper on our operation anyway?" She asks herself before rushing to the ship and the ramp closes up on them.

The commander watches from the stairway as the ship is lifted onto the deck and he sees it take off on the cameras. "Tygan, how's the research coming along?"

"Finished." Tygan says showing a tablet.

The commander's GREMLIN beeps at that. "Good enough. Is the secondary GREMLIN ready?" He asks turning to Central coming up the stairs.

"Yes sir. It is ready to go on the dropship when they are dropped onto the field." Central says setting up the GREMLIN on his tablet.

The commander beeps again. "I fear of it."

"We all do commander." Central says seeing the mission problems on his tablet.

"Well…we all cross our fingers and hope the chances are good." Tygan says.

The commander huffs. "I know chances. We got slim chances. Does Shen have the items ready?"

"Half an hour commander." Central says typing away as fast as he could.

The commander starts to float away. "Tell Shen to place it on the two GREMLIN workforces and have it fly straight away to the drop site and drop it on their heads."

"Yes sir." Tygan says almost smiling at who they might make happy.


	9. New Toys to Play With

"Watch it Owl." Wolf says dodging the shot she put out carrying the trigger to the explosives in the facility they left behind. "We have another job here, so let's hurry it up." Wolf harshly calls as he shoves the trigger into his pocket after he made sure it was locked for now as he takes cover behind a rock wall.

"Okay?" Excreta hisses as she slithers up to the other side of him and looks back to the facility.

Wolf nods. "Yeah. Guys, how's it going?" He asks over the comms.

"Looks clear. Sorry." Owl says watching from a tall outcropping.

"Check and clear." Catfish says staying ahead and trying to keep watch for anything coming from their main objective.

"Scans negative." Tek says seeing the results from her GREMLIN.

"All clear." Kelly says keeping on an eye on Excreta as she did overwatch over Wolf.

Wolf checks over the cover before rushing ahead and takes out the trigger and looks back to the facility behind them. "Okay. Let's see if we can make some noise." Wolf says as Excreta rushes past them to another rock wall with a tree and hides behind the tree.

Excreta feels eyes on her and looks to see Kelly staring at her as they all move up and Kelly moves closer as Wolf gets between them while Owl, Catfish, and Tek moves up onto the many outcroppings lining the way. "What…is it?" She hisses.

Kelly huffs. "You knew about this place."

Excreta hisses softly. "I…did not." She says as they kept moving up behind rock walls.

Wolf comes up between them. "Ladies, let's not fight each…rather fight the gatekeeper up ahead right there." Wolf says pointing to the giant floating ball with a glowing eye right on the other side of their cover.

Both Excreta and Kelly stares at it. "How did we miss that?" They both ask.

They both stare at each other before both Owl and Catfish open fire, cutting down on the life of the gatekeeper and shredding its armor while Tek sends her GREMLIN to make a shock onto the gatekeeper and stuns it for a bit as Wolf, Excreta, and Kelly fire their shotguns and rifle and decimates it to explode before it can even make a move against them.

"Seriously, how did we miss that?" Kelly asks as they all reload.

"You two need to get along, that's why." Catfish says lightning up a cigar. "Now how much farther till we reach the coordinates?"

"Recalculating." Tek says working on her tablet piece on her arm. "Distance to coordinates, a hundred meters."

"Then let's hurry up and get this done. The sooner we deal with this, the quicker…" Wolf stops at the sight of the many legged chryssalids in a huddle together. "Oh crap." He says as the chryssalids sees them and hisses at them before running off in different directions as two dig where they are.

"Oh no you don't!" Tek and Owl yells together as they aim their rifle and sniper at them and hits a single one and sends it flying away dead. "Scratch one!" Tek calls out.

"Nice job." Says Wolf as he looks to find a target of his own before finding a chryssalid of his own to kill and he dashes up and, with one well-placed slash, kills it.

Catfish chuckles as he takes the grenade launcher on his back and loads a grenade before aiming and firing at two chryssalids and blow apart one of their arms each and makes them hiss at him. "Yeah, good luck." Catfish mutters.

"Actually…they are saying…this one…is stupid." Excreta hisses as she translated and keeps hearing all the hissing chatter.

Catfish frowns. "Well then daddy's got a present for them and it's not a reward."

"As always with you Catfish." Owl says taking out her pistols and charges up a shot. "I'm never one for naughty kids either." She says before shooting and makes the armless chryssalid hiss as it was sent to the ground dead.

Wolf grins. "So you like bondage with your horse?" He asks as Excreta comes up from her cover and shoots away one that came out of the ground as it runs close to her before quickly taking out her sword and slices as it was almost dead close and sends it to the ground dead as she flicks the blood off the sword.

"WOLF!" Owl yells aiming at him.

Wolf goes wide eyed. "Whoa, whoa!" He calls out holding his arms in front of him in an effort to protect himself before Owl fires and hits the chryssalid coming up behind him and makes him turn his head to look at it a bit. "Oh. Thanks then."

Owl scoffs as she loads a shot. "Don't play around that much." She warns.

"What the hell did I walk into with this group? It wasn't that bad with mine." Kelly says running past them on a clear pathway and up on ahead to watch for anything ahead of them.

"Well excuse meOW!" Wolf yells as Tek slaps the back of his head as she runs past him.

"Don't ever use that reference. The reference that shall never be named." Tek warns as her GREMLIN beeps almost angrily at him.

Wolf rubs his head. "Didn't know you watch that show as well."

Tek rolls her eyes. "I like the series."

Wolf crosses his arms with a raised eyebrow before quickly taking out his sword and swipes at a chryssalid coming close to him and makes it stop and hiss at him. "All yours sexy lady!" He calls out. Excreta hisses loudly and takes out her rifle before charging a shot and hitting it square in the chest area and sends it flying past him. "Thanks sexy lady!" He calls and gives a thumbs up. Excreta only hisses at him in response.

"Target objective in sight!" Tek calls and they look to where she was looking and they see one last chryssalid at the gate. "Really insect? You want to tussle with us?" She asks reloading with everyone else as they all stare at it.

The chryssalid only stares at them before running around behind the strange gate that seems to be made up of some type of roots growing out of the ground that was glowing with bulbs of orbs and had itself running with two roots circling around a swirling circle of energy. "He's running. Kelly, sexy lady, would you care to slice his chittering ass to bits?" Wolf asks smirking.

Both Kelly and Excreta look to each other before rushing over as they split up and head to each to side and takes out their swords as the hisses at Kelly before they both slice at it and sends it flying off the platform. "Done and done." Kelly calls out.

"Menace One Five. Mission accomplished. All hostiles are cleared from the AO. Reinforcements and recovery teams are on the way." Central says over the coms as Kelly and Excreta come out from the sides of the gateway again as everyone checks their weapons and sits down to rest.

"Well that was fun. VIP is out and we got a badass gate that might lead to an alien home planet…maybe." Wolf says cleaning his sword as he sat on the rock wall.

"At least we can get a big break at this point. I think we all need a breakthrough." Kelly says moving over to him as she starts to clean her sword as well and leaves Excreta staring at the gate.

"Hey sis, you okay?" Tek asks looking over and pauses in her maintenance of her GREMLIN.

Excreta looks to her with a blank look before looking back to the gate. "Maybe she's trying to either remember or figure out where it goes." Owl thinks out loud.

"Or maybe she's planning to…" Kelly starts.

"Let me stop you right there. Excreta would never hurt us in anyway now. We are comrades and family. She would not hurt us in her line of thinking." Wolf defends. "Why are you so hung up about her?"

Kelly glares at him as she points the end of her sword at him. "Because she's still advent. You saw the chip they put in the commander. It's only a matter of time before something in her activates."

"And we'll deal with when it comes to." Catfish says lightning up a cigar.

Excreta kept staring at the gate and then turns and slithers back to them. "So how do we know if something comes through?" Tek asks watching the gate carefully.

"Maybe a surge of energy like most things. Maybe like the psionics the aliens uses. They charge up like that and maybe this gate is completely psionic." Owl says checking her charge pack.

"Leave it to the egg heads. I'm sure those two can find out in a heartbeat." Wolf says dismissively. "After all, the commander spared no expense." He says smirking before his head gets knocked to the side with the butt of Kelly's shotgun.

"Bad reference." Kelly says staring to clean her shotgun but now.

Excreta hisses to herself as she tries to remember and takes another look at the gate. 'A form of travel. Stories of us coming through. And now…I'm here in front of it to either destroy it or bring it back to study it. I have really changed.' She thinks and looks to Wolf as he tries to run away from Kelly who was brandishing her sword as she chases him. 'All for him.'

"Sis!" Tek yells aiming her rifle behind her.

Excreta quickly turns around and sees a gatekeeper fly through the gate and stare at her before flying to her. 'And the name has been found out.' She thinks taking out her sword as it comes close and takes a swipe at it and only makes scratches on the shell. 'Too thick of an armor!' She thinks panicking a bit.

"Fire everything!" Wolf yells as he and Kelly run back to their shotguns as Owl tries to put her charge pack back into her rifle and Catfish and Tek fires at the gatekeeper and makes holes in the armor and sends it back a little as Excreta can see a light become brighter as it looks at her.

'No.' Excreta braces herself as a bright laser fires at her and sends her flying straight to the ground.

"Excreta!" Wolf yells as he and Kelly grab their shotguns and fires at the Gatekeeper and hits it on the shell before making it move away. "Excreta! Answer me!" He calls out and quickly moves over to her and sees a smoking hole in her chest plate. "Excreta's hit! Tek, get your robot here now!" He calls and Tek rushes over.

"Menace One Five, what the hell is going one?!" Central calls.

"Gatekeeper!" Owl yells as the gatekeeper disappears behind the gate. "Damn." She curses as finally gets the charge pack into her rifle.

"And Excreta is down. She took a hit to the chest plate. We are checking now." Wolf says as the GREMLIN tries to stabilize anything wrong with a cloud of med kit spray.

"Repeat that last line." The commander requests.

"Excreta is hit. Come on Excreta, wake up." Wolf says hitting the side of her face a bit in an effort to wake her up.

"This is Firebrand. I'm already on the way." Firebrand says.

"Firebrand, this is the commander, do you have the package?" The commander asks.

"Locked and loaded. Ready to drop the droids." Firebrand says as Tek finally unlatches Excreta's armor and tears it off to see that the hole in her chest plate lead to a burn mark.

"She's fine. It looks like the armor took the hit well, but I don't think she can use it in this condition now." Tek says throwing the armor to the side.

"Firebrand, release them." The commander orders.

"Copy that. Firebrand is now over the site." Firebrand says as they look up and see the Skyranger above them as two GREMLINs holding a large crate tied to them with steel cables carries it to the ground.

Wolf still looks worried as he kept trying to wake Excreta up. "Come on lady. Wake up." He says as he kept hitting her face lightly.

"Sorry sis." Tek says before slapping Excreta's face hard and makes her hiss loudly as she wakes up and sits up.

Excreta pants and grabs at her chest and feels around where she was hit and looks to it. "A…alive?" She asks in shock.

Tek smiles as she holds up her armor plate. "And this old thing has saved your life."

Excreta looks to her in slight shock before turning her head and looks to Wolf looking relieved. "Wolf?"

Wolf starts to chuckle in relief and hugs her. "Thank goodness you're okay. Geez, you can give most of us a heart attack."

Excreta smiles a bit before the crate was suddenly dropped in front of them. "I'm sure that by your honor Excreta, that you would take revenge for them making an injury to you. So take these." The commander says as the top of the crate makes a popping sound and it splits into four pieces and falls down to the ground, showing an armor piece that fits Excreta's body shape that seems like her old armor plate, but longer and seems to below her waist and had the look and strength like the warden armor that everyone was wearing with a headdress that also seems to wrap around her frills and up to parts of her face and a shotgun and a new sword that was longer connected to the side of the cage that was holding it all up. "Get that bastard."

Excreta hisses and pushes Wolf off and slithers to the armor pieces and grabs the chest armor and starts to put it on before grabbing the headdress and keeps eyeing the gate where the gatekeeper was hiding as she still puts the armor on herself and just grabs the sword as she latches the last piece and slithers to the gate.

"I'm not going to direct you. It's all on you." The commander says.

Excreta slithers her tongue out as she holds her new sword at the ready and keeps slithering along behind the gate and sees the gatekeeper turn to look at her as she slithers up to it calmly. The gatekeeper speaks gibberish to her as it panics slightly that she was back. She hisses and bares her fangs at it before slithering quicker to it and holds her sword above her and then slices down the closed shell and makes it beep in panic before it explodes and has the pieces of the explosion bounce off her shield to her surprise.

"Menace One Five. We are reading no more hostiles. Great job." Central reports as Excreta slithers back around the gate to the others waiting where they were.

"Like the armor Excreta? Shen has been working hard on it after checking over your old one. As you saw, it has shields for some strikes, mostly explosions. It has stronger armor than your old one even. So you can take more hits on the side because with your sword, you're going be in the thick of things more than usual." The commander explains as she grabs her new shotgun and straps it to her back as she places the sheath for the sword and places the sword in before putting it on her back. "Let's get you guys home. I'm sure you would all like a hot meal and a good rest." The commander says as the Skyranger lands in a clearing a bit away.

Wolf kept staring at Excreta as she slithers up to him as he holds her old sword and rifle. "So…guess you don't need these anymore?" He asks holding them up as the others gather their things and heads to the Skyranger as personnel come out of it to grab the gate.

Excreta stares at him before taking the rifle and looks it over a bit before shaking her head and keeps holding onto her rifle and leads him to the Skyranger.

Wolf smiles greatly now. "So…new armor. Feels good?" He asks looking her over and her new look.

Excreta lets a smile through and gives a hissing chuckle.

Wolf grins now. "Another smile." He says calmly.

Excreta nods and looks to him again as they head up the ramp. "Oh just kiss you two." Catfish calls getting tired of them not bothering.

Wolf sputters to him. "Wha…no. We are not feeling that right now…are we?" He asks looking to Excreta as the ramp closes and takes off with them.

Excreta stares at him. "Are…you?" She hisses.

Wolf shakes his head. "Not right this second, no."

Excreta looks to Catfish and gives a shrug. "Hey, sis shrugged." Tek says smiling greatly. "She's really getting the expression knowledge down."

Excreta smiles a bit and sits down onto a seat as Wolf lands back in his seat. "Had us worried there for second. Thought you were dead."

Excreta smirks to him as she brings the end of her tail up and hits his side.

Wolf chuckles. "Yeah. Proof you are alive."

"Oh just stop the teasing. You are making me barf." Kelly says getting tired of this.

Wolf grins to her. "Once you have a man, you are going to be singing a different tune once you see us teasing each other."

Kelly frowns to him. "Yeah right. Like I would get with a man."

"Does that mean you go for girls then?" Tek grins and teases and makes Kelly blush a bit.

"No I don't!" Kelly yells annoyed.

Wolf laughs. "Great job sis. A few more weeks and you'll be like me."

Catfish and Owl shake their heads at that. 'Oh no. Not another Wolf.' They thought together.

Tek laughs and gives him a high five as Excreta leaves her tail on top of Wolf's lap as she keeps watching. 'This is a good new life.'

* * *

The commander eyes the gate now installed into the shadow chamber as the old tube was destroyed by a codex creature that they had managed to hack and capture. "Tell me this will work." He asks Tygan working on a computer near it.

Tygan nods. "We have sufficient power systems so it should be enough to power this to anywhere it might go."

Shen nods as she works on a terminal on the other end. "And soon we will get the information needed."

The commander sighs and turns to the window on the other side of the room and sees Wolf and Excreta walk on by. "They sure make a good couple."

Shen smiles as she looks at them for a moment before going back to her work. "Yeah. Hard to believe it took them this long and for us to have an alien on our side. Tygan…are they even compatible?" She asks a bit worried.

Tygan chuckles. "The commander had me look into that. Turns out that the elders did some work on them too. I took a sample of our slithering friend and found out that she has human DNA in her. In fact, her chance of being compatible with Wolf would be half and half. So they have a chance."

Shen smiles. "Good. I hate for them to be devastated. Did she like her new toys?"

The commander chuckles at that. "Oh yeah. She just slithered right up to that gatekeeper and sliced across the face and didn't bat an eye. Now that's revenge."

Tygan hums as he looks to the gate. "Okay. This should do it. One last press and I got this." He says before turning it on and the lights dim a bit before purple energy starts to form in the middle of the gateway and soon grows bigger to what seems like a faint tunnel to nothing.

"Oh. Glowy thing." The commander says drifting toward it.

"Commander." Shen says holding him back and pulls him back to a table on the far end where her GREMLIN, Rover, was being retrofitted. "Don't go in."

The commander turns to Rover. "What are you doing?" He asks a bit worried.

Shen sighs dejectedly. "Hate to do this…but you're the only one who can pull this off. And you know I would go myself if I could." She says to Rover.

The commander sparks. "You're sending her?!"

Tygan raises an eyebrow as he kept his eyes on the screen. "Yes. We can't send you because this GREMLIN you are using has held out this long. There is a new one coming, but we don't know if it will be good enough or compatible. Furthermore, I have been working on Rover for a while and frankly, she's going to go through this one day."

The commander still sparks. "You know you can…"

Shen holds up a hand. "Please commander. Don't make this harder." She said before waving Rover over.

"Is the subject ready?" Tygan asks with a smirk on his face from the show they were putting out.

"I hardwired what was left of the Codex brain into Rover. It should be emitting the same signal the Codex used to pass through the gateway." Shen explains as Rover follows her.

"But can I just say…" The commander starts.

"Sir, we may not have enough time before the gateway acts up." Shen interrupts again as she works on her terminal. "Okay, we are set to record across the spectrum. Just go in and take a peek and take some readings before coming back, okay?" She asks and Rover beeps and moves to the gateway.

"But…" The commander starts again.

"Commander, I would recommend you stay quiet as we don't need extra data transmission in this room." Shen warns as the gateway starts to change and show a strange view on the other side like a window to an alien location with pathways and towers with another gateway always in view. "It works."

"I'm increasing the power." Tygan says and the window opens wider to show more of the room.

Shen takes a side peek herself. "It doesn't look like anyplace I have seen…or maybe any place for Earth like structures for that matter."

Tygan hums as he looks to the window itself. "Perhaps this is the source of it all. Secured away from any physical path."

Rover beeps and turns to Shen who sighs worriedly. "Go on Rover."

"Rover." The commander calls, but Rover already on her way and heads to the gate as the feed to her camera starts to gain interference before cutting off as the gateway closes for a bit before suddenly coming back on and then spits out Rover crumbled and smoking onto the ground before it closes. "Rover!" The commander yells as he hovers to her sparking form. "Oh no."

Shen rushes over and looks Rover over. "This is not fine doctor."

"Yet it worked." Tygan spoke up as the commander and Shen kept looking Rover over. "Rover was in between locations for a few moments, but it was calling for a different signal. An organic signature. And when it could not read one, it spits her right back out with a feedback pulse. If the codex is the door, the organic must be the key."

"Well we better make sure we have the right bump key. I don't want this to happen to something organic." Shen says as she picks up Rover.

"Can I just say something?" The commander asks as he kept an eye on Rover who was trying to restart herself and failing.

Shen sighs and places Rover on the workbench. "What is it?"

They could feel the commander having a raised eyebrow somehow. "Did you even know about the GREMLIN workshop on the ship where you can use those GREMLINs?"

Shen stops and turns to him. "When was this made?" She asks surprised.

The commander gives his GREMLIN a robotic shrug. "Oh, I don't know. About TWO WEEKS AGO!" He yells and makes the GREMLIN spark.

Shen was slacked jawed at that. "I didn't know there was a workshop on the ship."

"Actually," Tygan spoke up. "You were out. So I handled that room. I thought you got the memo."

The commander floats up to Shen's face. "Next time, listen before sending my friend into a possible door slamming into your face situation." He says before floating down to the weakly beeping GREMLIN. "Oh. It's okay. You'll be fine. We'll fix you right up. Soon you would be back up and floating around." He says nudging into Rover slightly. "The mean old lady won't hurt you anymore."

"Mean old lady?" Shen asks angrily as she puts her hands on her hips.

"I would still date you in a heartbeat. I'm human here. I just like Rover when I'm a robot myself. Besides, you are cute at times." The commander says making her stop and blush a bit as he kept nudging Rover.

"Okay…" Shen says surprised.

Tygan chuckles. "Seems we don't just have one couple anymore." He says amused.

"Shut up and don't ruin the moment." Both the commander and Shen says together.


	10. Deep Roots

The commander hums softly as he stares into the purple light filled room of the Psi Lab as his aging soldier was sitting in the training room and is meditating. "You know…I had a lot of time to completely upgrade this place…all of them. Long time coming, but it's there. I don't have anyone else to go through this and really…you're the most powerful soldier in the line of soldiers we have."

The old man chuckles as he had aging white hair and a full face beard. "Never easy, is it sir?"

The commander's GREMLIN shakes itself back and forth. "Not really…but that's what makes it fun at times. So…last hour. Ready to head out and make a name for yourself?"

The old man, now nicknamed Merlin, smirks as he gets up. "Oh yeah. Now we can fight on our terms."

The commander chuckles. "Good. This will be fun. I assure you of that. Now, you sure you don't want to train and get your leader certification?"

Merlin shakes his head. "Nah. Leave that to the youngins."

He could swear he was feeling a smirk. "And that's why I have been taking you and Catfish out of the game multiple times now. At least, he can act as leader if Wolf is out. I am surprised things are turning out this way. I never would have expected these results at all."

Merlin chuckles. "Who doesn't? So…do the first mission?"

The commanders gives a GREMLIN nod. "Yep. And…watch for pitfalls." He says flying off.

"Played the game, never was fun." Merlin says waving him off.

* * *

"Damn girl, you can worry me." Wolf says cleaning up the scorch mark on her chest.

Excreta hisses softly as she tries to help him. "Fifth…time." She hisses as she gives him another cleaning pad.

Wolf chuckles. "Well I have to say it. Otherwise how else would it sink into the brain?"

Excreta smiles softly as she scratches at the patch of scales a bit as they sat on the bed in their room. "Clean…now?"

Wolf nods as he gives one last wipe and sees no more ash marks. "Yep. You're cleaned up and ready for another rumble."

Excreta hisses happily as she checks one more time as Wolf packs everything up. "What…to do…now?"

Wolf smiles. "Well what do you want to do? We got a break after that whole almost dying thing."

Excreta shrugs a bit as she looks around. "Do not…have any…ideas."

Wolf hums as he gets up and packs the kit away. "Well…there's always resting it all off. Want to try that?"

Excreta looks to him and keeps watching him. "Why…court?"

Wolf stops and looks to her confused as he blushes a bit. "C…court? As in, why am I courting you?"

Excreta nods and Wolf sighs as he tries to stave off the nervous as he turns back around and tries to pack away the kit. "Well…um…you're cute. I can say that. The other one is that…well…you're special. You are able to be quite honorable in this type of world. And…you're willing to see the difference. You don't get that a lot in the streets nowadays. Also, considering the fact you are the single nicest alien around that didn't try and kill me anytime you got a chance, shows something. And…" He stops as he feels a pair of scaled arms wrap around his shoulders, which makes him look to one slightly and follow it to Excreta looking at him with a tilted head. "And…and…" Wolf tries to form more words, but Excreta slowly turns him around to face her and leans her head in close. "And…I…care…for you." Wolf finishes blushing hard and makes Excreta smile a bit.

"You…are…a good…mate." Excreta says as her tail slowly wraps around him and she leans in more. "Very good…mate." She says before bringing him in for a hug and makes Wolf awkwardly wrap his arms around the naked snake as well.

Wolf gulps nervously. "Glad you…think that." He says as they stayed hugging in silence before he looks up to her. "So…what do you want to do?"

Excreta hisses softly as she looks to him and slithers her tongue close to him before leaning more. "Your…choice."

Wolf nods slowly as he kept staring at her as she kept slithering her tongue at him. "Maybe…well…we could…"

"Mate?" Excreta asks calmly.

Wolf suddenly coughs and chokes on his words at that option. "No! We are not mating!" He yells and stops before they both slowly look over to the door and stops at the sight of Merlin standing there holding a raised eyebrow.

Merlin holds up his hands. "Hey. Don't let me hold you back. You two want to have a romp in bed, don't let me stop you." He says slowly walking out.

"No. We are not doing that…yet." Wolf says feeling Excreta's eyes on him. Merlin chuckles a bit at that. "Who are you anyway?" Wolf asks confused as he has never seen this guy before.

Merlin smiles. "The Psi guy."

Wolf stares at him shocked before smirking. 'Oh dear.' Excreta thinks seeing his expression.

"The Science Guy?" Wolf asks grinning.

Merlin facepalmed. "Commander warned me about you. I didn't believe half of it and now I have to believe the that half."

Wolf chuckles as Excreta shakes her head a bit. "Well you should know your soldiers by now. Anyways, what are you doing here?"

Merlin sighs. "Check you over after what happened and I'm taking over Kelly's position on your squad. Guessing the commander got that you two don't get along with your girlfriend here." He says pointing to Excreta a bit. "So…how about a little mind read?" He asks rubbing his hands together.

Excreta goes wide eyed a bit. 'He is like the smooth skins. He is powerful in the mind. But…reading mind? I fear of what he might find in me.' She thinks as Wolf and Merlin sit on the couch as they seem to stare at each other.

"Okay, just relax and if you feel a tug on your mind, just let it in." Merlin advises as he concentrates on Wolf. Wolf sighs and tries to calm down as he slowly felt a slight tug on his mind before letting it pass and Merlin suddenly recoiled and quickly got up. "Wow! I had no idea you had that on the forefront of your mind!" Merlin yells as he paces around.

Excreta became confused as the strong minded human kept pacing and yelling. "What…happened?"

Merlin looks to her. "Your boyfriend here is literally trying to figure out how you two are going to have sex. Like human or snake way and I see that he has looked up how snakes have sex."

Excreta goes wide eyed and slowly looks to Wolf whistling innocently as he looks away blushing a bit before looking back to Merlin. "He is…" She actually pauses here. "Interesting."

Merlin scoffs. "If that's interesting, I would not want to be here when you two are going at it. Now it's your turn and please don't think of sex. I had enough from him." Merlin says pointing his thumb to Wolf who was giving a little grin at how he made the most powerful mind on the ship freak out.

Excreta blinks as she looks around for a place to sit. "That there is fine." Merlin says as he rubs his head before concentrating on her and easily slips though her lackluster barrier. "Huh. At least you're easier and simple." Merlin says as he keeps reading around her mind for anything important.

Excreta kept watching Merlin for anything as he kept sifting through her mind. 'What are you looking for?'

Merlin raises an eyebrow. 'Looking for anything wrong. You have been shot and changed over from the other side.' Excreta nods slowly before Merlin withdrew from her mind. "Okay. You two are fine…maybe half fine." He says looking slightly to Wolf. "Watch yourself you two. I'm sure the commander has more planned for you." He says before walking out. "Enjoy yourselves you two."

Excreta slowly turns from the door to the heavily blushing Wolf still looking away. "Um…so…want to…"

"Mate?" Excreta asks almost smirking that she can now hold something over him.

Wolf sputters and turns to her a little mad. "Would you stop suggesting that?"

Excreta just gives a hissing chuckle as Wolf tries to calm down.

* * *

Catfish sighs as he enters the barracks and lays down on the bed. "Finally." He says closing his eyes before feeling a weight near him on the bed.

"So…final days huh?" Owl asks looking to his rank below his normal XCOM rank.

Catfish nods. "Commander is planning an all-out assault for the final run. Once we go through this, we can't stop. I doubt the injuries will stop him from placing us on the team going out."

Owl sighs. "I wish we can get everyone on the ship to go on these missions now. But can you believe it? We are getting close to the end. Feels like…nope. Too long a war." She says sitting on the side of his bed now.

Catfish nods. "Think those two will have a life after this?"

Owl shrugs. "Hard to say. We are painting the advent as evil bad guys and vipers are included. I doubt they are going to live much in peace after this."

"Well…maybe they can live on your old farm." Catfish suggests.

Owl looks to him with a raised eyebrow. "Really? You know my farm burned down in the first invasion. Wasn't fun."

Catfish smiles a bit. "Then that makes it all the more better. Building their lives from the ground up. Heck, simple and easy and we know we are going to need rebuilding and I think it's a nice change of pace from everything."

Owl hums as Tek leans over her bedside at them upside down. "Maybe we can visit them when we have a chance. We are their family after all. Who knows…maybe they will have kids. I doubt the genetics are that different for reproduction after hearing about what they did to the aliens."

Owl nods. "Eh…I still have the deed and everything in a safe at the farm. I can still get it in fact. Just need this to be over."

Catfish smiles. "Anyone think this might be like their wedding present?"

Both Tek and Owl smile at that. "I think it is. Maybe we can give a fertility boost to Excreta for snakes. I'm sure the genetics are close enough for her reptile side to be good for those medicines that the zoos give for snakes." Tek says taking out her tablet and looks up the information.

Owl grins. "Maybe. Maybe one that makes it so she can get really frisky."

Catfish sits up a bit. "Are you sure you want to squeeze Wolf to death with that?"

Owl laughs. "Duh. Why else why I give something like that to the one with muscles all over their tail that can squeeze someone to death?"

Tek gives a playful frown. "Now that's just mean mom."

Owl chuckles. "Oh pipe down Tek. I'm just playing around. I won't give something like that…unless they ask for it."

Tek snaps her fingers and her GREMLIN activates before floating up and over to Owl and bonks itself on Owl's head.

Owl rubs her head. "Okay. I won't say anything about this until it's over. But that doesn't mean I won't have fun."

Tek smiles at that as she pulls herself back into bed as Catfish chuckles. "You are definitely a mother. Maybe I should ask you to marry me when this is over as well."

Owl raises an eyebrow. "Maybe not. Then again…you are passable." She says smirking.

Catfish gives a hurt look as he sits up. "Now that's just mean. Passable only? Why not…"

"Just kiss." Wolf says walking by the doorway and disappearing just as quick.

Catfish rolls his eyes and looks to Owl. "Yeah…not yet."

Owl hits his head. "Not yet huh?"

Catfish chuckles. "Yep. Not yet."

* * *

The commander hums happily as he dances along with Rover as Shen watches a bit away. "Come on Shen. Join the party that may be our last." He calls out.

Shen shakes her head. "Nope. Not happening."

The commander chuckles as he floats closer with Rover. "Come on. You know you want to." He says bumping into her shoulder.

Shen still shakes her head. "Still not happening."

"Just dance." Wolf calls out as he passes by with a box.

They both stop as Rover dances by their view. "Please tell me all the explosives are on lockdown." The commander asks.

Shen nods. "Should be…" She says unsure right now.

The commander gulps and his GREMLIN made a head motion. "I hope he's not planning on blowing a new meal to bits."

Rover dances close to him and bumps into his side and keeps dancing along as if she didn't notice anything.

* * *

Central raises an eyebrow as he watches Wolf walk by with a box as he whistled and heads to his room before the door closes behind him. "Don't blow up the ship." He pleads to whatever god is out there.

A few minutes later, both Wolf and Excreta came out of the room with her somewhat armored as they head out of the room. "Training. Great." Central mutters as he tried to ignore the potential amount of complaints.

* * *

"It's been awhile since we had a spar huh?" Wolf asks heading down the ladder.

Excreta slithers her tongue out as she follows him. "Yes. Weak?" She hisses smirking a bit.

Wolf chuckles. "No. I at least try and work out when I can. Though with you, it's becoming less and less." He says as they go to a clearing in the desert they were in.

Excreta hisses quietly as she slithers to the opposite side of him and readies herself. "Less? I am…a…burden?" She hisses as Wolf quickly shakes his head.

"No. No. You aren't a burden at all. It's just now I have to fit you into my schedule. It may take a while, but I will get back into rhythm soon. Besides, how else am I going to spend time with the sexiest lady on the ship?" Wolf ask smirking.

Excreta smiles and holds up her sword at him. "Shall…we?" She hisses as Wolf holds up his sword.

Wolf nods and gets into his stance. "Let's go sexy lady." He says before charging at her and Excreta hisses as she moves to the side and brings up her tail to trip him, but he ends up placing his foot on her tail and jumps back as he scrapes his sword against hers as he kept moving back before stopping and going after her directly.

Excreta hisses happily as she kept blocking his strikes before suddenly reaching from under his view and grabs his wrist before trying to slice at him in half and he reverses his grip on his sword and blocks the strike as he holds the blade against himself before moving under her arm and gets behind her as he grabs her wrist and holds her before bringing his sword up to strike.

Excreta hisses quickly and quickly uses her tail and wraps around his feet and jerks her tail away and makes him let go of her and fall to the ground as she brings her sword up and prepares to bring it down before Wolf takes the bladed end of his sword and jabs Excreta into her tail and makes her jerk back and let go of him for some reason before blocking her strike down onto him as he quickly got up and grabs her hand that was holding the blade and moves in close.

Excreta slithers her tongue out as Wolf smirks as he comes in close and they stay still for a bit as they thought of how to end the fight. "Give up?" Wolf asks.

Excreta snaps her jaws at him. "Never." She hisses as they try to overpower each other at this point and push each other way, but neither of them would budge. "You…give up." She hisses.

Wolf chuckles. "Never." He mimics with a slight hiss to mess with her and she smirks before leaning her face in close to his and he starts to blush. "Um…"

Excreta gives a hissing chuckle as she kept moving closer before moves her wrapped hand around his that was holding his blade back and moves it along his arm as he blushes harder. "Scared?" She hisses quietly as she slowly brings her tail around them on the ground.

Wolf shakes his head as he stopped trying to push his sword closer. "No. Never." He said tilting his head away.

Excreta chuckles and ends up only an inch away. "Mate." She hisses as she runs a claw over his neck. "Close…mating."

Wolf gulps as he tries to move his neck away. "Can you um…stop that?"

Excreta shakes her head and moves her claw close to the scar on his cheek. "Enjoy." She hisses and slithers her tongue out and actually touches him with it and makes him flinch a bit.

"Can we get back to fighting?" Wolf quickly asks blushing at the contact.

Excreta hisses under breath. "You don't…enjoy?" She asks leaning her head almost past his.

Wolf gulps and looks to her at the side. "Do you have to do things like this very close?"

Excreta gives a hissing chuckle and bumps her head against his a bit. "Mate."

Wolf eyes her as her eye seems to be watching him. "M…mate." He says, his head bumping back against her and makes her smile. "You have pretty eyes, you know?"

Excreta raises an eyebrow and smirks. "Really?" She hisses and leans her eye closer.

Wolf nods slowly. "Yeah. It's a pretty set of eyes. Really can get lost trying to figure them out."

Excreta smiles even more. "And you…have the…dark…deep recesses…of a hole…which I…want to…fall in." she hisses and licks his cheek.

Wolf smiles a bit. "Good to know. Shall we get back to training before something life changing happens?" Excreta nods before pushing him away and makes him trip over her tail and makes her give a hissing laugh as he picks himself up. "Shut up sexy lady or I'm going to give it real good." Wolf grumbles as he brings his sword up again.

Excreta keeps laughing and prepares herself as well. "Mate…happy?" She asks and smiles as she tries to get control of herself.

"Yeah, mate happy." Wolf says watching her movement now before they both go at each other again.


	11. Lie

The commander hums along to a simple tune as he floats through the hallway to the science lab. "Now let's see if we can get this done. I just hope Merlin doesn't go crazy from the influx of Psi energy." He says to himself before coming out into the large engine room. "Hey Tygan?! You here?" He calls and floats around the area.

"Over here. Almost set up." Tygan says as he grabs his autopsy tools. "Just need to cut this new creature open. Maybe we find more answers than ever."

The commander beeps. "Good. I'll be right here. Feels like the final door will be opened with this and we can't stop the flood."

Tygan chuckles as he puts on a mask. "And our option is to shoot it and see if we cook the flood."

Tygan feels the commander grins. "I just wish I can see a citizen uprising. That be something I want to get involved in. Just walking up all badass looking all weak before beating their ass with everyone else running in."

Tygan laughs and hangs onto the nearby table. "I would like to get involved in that as well. Maybe get some advent fast food before they burn the place down."

"You just want to loot." The commander says chuckling.

Tygan smirks. "Always wanted to try a rebel side. Now then, let's cut this guy open." He says before turning on the recorder on the terminal nearby and the commander floats a bit away as Tygan starts to cut open the strange suit and into the flesh of the dead alien. "This creature represents a near perfect fusion of human and Elder DNA. Though remarkable, it appears as if the creature is unfinished, perhaps why we were able to ultimately defeat it. Still this can lead to only one logical conclusion…" Tygan said out loud for the recorder before he cuts into something and the body starts to glow a purple aura that slowly drifted off the body before floating in front of him and the body.

"You have to be…" The commander starts before the aura of purple mist makes an image of an Elder appear.

"We had such hope for you." The Elder said with a slight echo before the image suddenly popped out of form and just became a mist that settled down to the ground.

Tygan slowly looks to the commander, who he can tell was frowning slightly behind his GREMLIN, as he takes off his mask. "I believe we have found our avatar."

The commander stares at him before his GREMLIN does a jump. "So that explains why the name catcher marked it as avatar. This machine was reverse engineered and we did tap in a little."

Tygan facepalmed at that.

* * *

"Okay, explain to me this qui…" Central stops as he looks to the disabled GREMLIN. "Where's the commander?"

Shen smiles. "Wait for it." She says before the GREMLIN came back online. "All right. You there and ready commander?"

"Let's get this over with. I just hope it's good news." The commander says moving around to get the motors moving on the GREMLIN.

Shen sighs. "Well it won't be easy. But it's simply the option we have."

Tygan nods. "We have completed the analysis of the avatar's DNA and has the correct sequence to pass through the gate."

Central nods. "Perfect. Now put an end to this project for good and bring a quick end to this war."

Tygan holds up a hand. "However the gate requires more than the sequence."

Shen brings up a few images on screen. "It has to be part of a live subject or it will kick you out. The key only works in lock-step with the signal."

Central frowns. "We don't have time to find another one of these things. Much less capturing it."

Shen smiles a bit. "No we can't. But that part of the process we can handle. We can actually make our own."

"Oh boy. Making our own alien. Let's hope this doesn't come out as bad to the public." The commander says floating around in a pacing motion.

Tygan clears his throat. "Anyway, with the specimen being damaged beyond repair, it has given us the genetic blueprint to make one. Using the altered avatar template from the Forge facility, using the genetic material, we have all the ingredients to make our own."

Central shakes his head slowly. "And with any meal, there's a catch."

Tygan sighs. "Yes…that part. The avatar body has been made for the Elders to connect and use. But without one, it's just lifeless."

Shen smiles a bit. "But I can…in a way…anyway, we can use the psionic network to help control the new avatar."

Central looks over the dead avatar. "And you want to control this avatar."

Shen shakes her head and slowly turns to the commander. "Not really. And definitely not me."

Tygan was busying himself with the terminal. "Interfacing directly with their network would cause severe, if not fatal trauma to an unprepared central nervous system. As for who can interface, there is one person who has survived all of these trials." He says before turning to the commander and Central follows their gaze to the stock still GREMLIN.

"Oh bloody hell."

Central frowns. "He was different. He was in a stasis suit…"

"That created the perfect interface to the network. One tailored to your specific biology, commander. Out of all of us, even Merlin, you are the most likely to survive this process." Tygan says raising an eyebrow.

"And the most likely is what's almost making me stop this process all together." Central interjects.

Tygan shrugs. "It's all we have and the only answer and solution to give."

Central shakes his head. "We need to come up with a game plan first before charging through that gate, guns blazing."

"I wouldn't mind that though. Rockets and demolition. Makes things easier to handle on the enemy." The commander says whimsically.

"Commander." Central says groaning.

The commander chuckles. "Can you blame me? I have a bit of pyro in me." Shen grabs his GREMLIN and pulls him away. "Oh come on!"

* * *

Wolf raises an eyebrow as both him and Excreta watch as Shen pulls the commander's GREMLIN along the hall. "Girl trouble?"

"Shut up!" The commander yells at him.

Excreta looks to Wolf. "Girl…trouble?"

Wolf shrugs. "Commander doesn't know hide nor hare on how to deal with girls."

"I so do!" The commander yells.

Shen rolls her eyes. "And filtering with my daughter is so helping."

"Rover. Name is Rover. And she is very sweet." The commander argues as he kept being pulled along.

"Guys! Get back here!" Central yells from down the hall and makes them stop before the commander quickly floated down the hall and everyone else ran and slithered, following the commander.

"What happened?!" The commander quickly asks with his joking voice gone.

"Priority message for you sir." A communications officer says.

"Put it on." The commander says and they can feel the frown on him.

"Sir…it's coming from the advent network tower." The communications officer says a bit worried.

"Do it. He's taking a big risk with this." Central says.

"No doubt." The commander says as a man in shadows appears on screen that Excreta was actually feeling a bit of dread from at how much power he looked to be holding just from sight.

"Hello commander. You and your crew are to be commended. Your efforts in rebuilding the resistance network and uncovering the truth about the avatar project have been admirable. Including the gain of assistance from a now defected alien." The councilor says and Excreta can feel his gaze on her.

The commander was in fact frowning right now. "But…"

"I only wish I had better news to report. Advent is not taking the death of an Elder lightly and in turn have greatly accelerated the final stages of their avatar project. A plan is now in place for the rapid processing of all non-essential human life. To begin immediately." The council says and everyone was shocked as Excreta goes wide eyed and starts to slither back slowly.

"Very soon advent's speaker will announce a breakthrough in gene therapy. A final treatment for the human condition. Billions will go, but they won't check out." He says and the commander quickly turns to Excreta and makes her stop.

"You knew." He says and Wolf looks worried as everyone else glares at her.

Excreta gulps. "It was…told to us…as a…preview. Humans…would be…healed…of all…afflictions. I hoped…that soon…once it was…over…I can…take Wolf…and have him…healed. I never…thought that…it was…" She stops as she Wolf walks to her. "I'm…sorry."

Wolf quickly grabs her hand. "You want to make it right? Help us and no more hiding. You show yourself."

Excreta was wide eyed at that. "Now that, I can agree." The commander says and Excreta quickly nods.

"I have managed to secure tactical data and access codes to the advent network tower. The speaker's address will be broadcast live to a global audience via this facility - the whole of advent's network will be listening." The councilor quickly explains and they can hear the urgency in his voice. "It is this hubris we must use against them. The information I am sending you should allow doctor Tygan and chief engineer Shen to take control of the transmission and disrupt their entire network from within. Though my hope is that this disruption will confuse the enemy's forces long enough to allow your final assault a change of success, I ask one more thing of you. Take what you have learned. Let the world know what is happening here. Wake them up. Broadcast the truth. Before there is no one left to listen." He says as the feed starts to flicker and a door being banged on in the background.

"Sir." The commander starts.

"It seems we are both out of time." The councilor says as he takes out a large laser pistol from under the desk before the door was knocked down he started firing behind him at the soldiers pouring in before the feed cuts.

Everyone was silent for the moment as Excreta squeezes Wolf's hand for a bit. "Central." The commander says in a voice that left no room to argue.

"Yes sir?" Central asks as they all still looked at the screen.

The commander starts to float away. "Authorize the mission. Get it done. Wolf, you are in charge of your squad heading out. Don't die."

"And you sir?" Wolf asks raising an eyebrow.

The commander turns to him. "I'm coming here. And that means revealing myself. I will get out in the riots and uprising that will follow. Maybe bring you a fancy sports car while I'm at it. Now I won't be able to contact you until then so good luck. Going offline now." He says before the GREMLIN shuts down and falls to the ground.

Shen frowns. "I'll prepare the body."

Tygan nods. "I'll have the process and data ready to go."

Central sighs. "Get down to the hangar with your team. We need to do this now." He says to Wolf before turning to Tygan and Shen. "Have the evidence ready to broadcast once we have control. We are not letting a misstep get in the way."

"Come on Excreta." Wolf says pulling her along to the hangar as the alarm sounded for everyone to prepare for any attack.

Excreta looks worried as she keeps up. "Final…battle?"

Wolf nods. "And the biggest and longest one. We are already committed so we can't stop at this point. I just hope I don't get anyone killed."

Excreta pulls back and stops him. "You are…a fine…warrior." She hisses reaching over and strokes at the mark she gave on his face.

Wolf sighs and smiles. "Thanks. Kinda means a lot coming from you. Now let's hurry up." He says rushing ahead with her.

Excreta blinks as she watches him run along the halls. 'He's changed. He seems to have gotten mother's demeanor for battle. Though it raises questions at times, I won't argue.' She thinks as the others either run behind them or past them and grab their weapons and armor along the way as they hurry to put it on and the Skyranger starting up.

"You ready old man?" Wolf asks making sure the charge on his shotgun was running.

Merlin chuckles as he places the rifle on his back. "I should be asking you the same question kid. We are going to put a huge dent and they won't be able to stop us."

Owl grins. "Let's make sure that happens. I don't want to come home to a burning airship." She says looking through her scope as they all got on the Skyranger.

Catfish smiles. "Ah don't worry cowgirl. We'll be home in time for the movie. And I'll get popcorn on the way."

"Can I pick out the channels?" Tek asks checking her GREMLIN.

"Sure. We'll even let you handle the remote." Wolf says grinning as the Skyranger took off.

Tek leans over to Excreta. "Want something special to eat while we watch sis?"

Excreta blinks before smiling. "Just…seeing…faces."

Merlin chuckles. "Want to see the reaction? You got it."

Excreta smiles as she looks to them all and taps on her sword handle with her claw. 'My family.'

Wolf grins. "Now let's give these guys hell." He says pulling his hood up.


	12. Not a Great Plan

Excetra taps her sword with her claw as the Skyranger comes flying up to a set of buildings where plenty of advent troops were standing guard, ready for an attack of any type. Too bad they'd never see the Skyranger, even with it a building away.

"Okay, quick, hard, and don't destroy the floor." Wolf warns as the hangar door opens up and the ropes fall. "Let's get this done and hope the citizens listen." He says before running out before grabbing and sliding down a rope.

"Certainty of death, small chance of success," Tek recites as she grabs her gun. "What are we waiting for?" She asks before following and slides down the rope.

"Hope you ready youngins because I'm going to show you I'm not old." Merlin says before heading out.

"Wait up." Both Owl and Catfish calls as they both run out and slide down.

Excetra gives them an amused smile before slithering and jumping out the door and lands onto her coiled tail. Looking around, she sees everyone readying their weapons and aiming to the far side of the building where patrols of high ranking advent soldiers were just hovering or standing around and a large amount of light was coming from behind one of the walls of the building.

"Excetra, how about starting us off?" Wolf asks as they all get into cover and Owl aims at one of the archons.

Excetra smirks and aims herself to an advent soldier before shooting out her tongue at it and wraps her tongue around it before pulling it back and Wolf quickly takes out his sword and holds it above her tongue and slices off its head. "Good?" She asks getting into cover as everyone in the area was alerted.

Wolf chuckles as he flicks and sheaths his sword. "Good. Now, Owl, get rid of that stupid flyer."

Owl grins as she fires and makes the archon cry out mechanically as it seems to get madder. "It's acting like I took off half of its body."

Wolf smiles. "Let's not disappoint. Everyone, weapons free." He calls and stands up before firing at the andromedon and makes it stop its foot as it sparks while everyone else opens fire at anything nearby.

"Eat up assholes!" Catfish cheers as he fires away and hits the archon and finishes it off as it explodes and falls to the ground dead.

"Go on boy." Tek says patting her GREMLIN's head as it flies up a bit before activating it's scanning function lighting up their systems on how many enemies there are, as well as types they would be up against. "Okay, we might die." She says before standing up and shoots at the andromedon and make its cockpit glass explode out as a body falls limp and the machine stays limp standing up. "And the startup." She says before waving her hand to it and her GREMLIN files to it before the andromedon starts up and her GREMLIN connects and starts to hack into the machine. "Just a few seconds guys."

"Not a problem." Merlin says before taking his psionic amplifier and charges it as he holds his hand up to it before aiming down where most of the advent were and smirks. "Bye bye." He says before a high powered null lance caved through the line and destroyed all walls and cover as it severely burns and destroy parts of them as they stagger while some of them were either decimated and killed. "And that's how it's done."

Wolf chuckles. "Remind me to let you lead with that first."

Merlin shakes his head. "I need time. You know you can't keep doing high-level attacks like that on a whim…though it would be cool."

Wolf laughs as he stands up and fires away at another archon flying in as Excetra fires off her own shot and they both destroy it as it explodes and falls to the ground. "Next." Excetra hisses before Tek cheers.

"Got it!" Tek calls and looks up a bit and sees the andromedon shut down before restarting and starts to walk off into the building where most of the enemy were housed. "And now it's rock 'em sock 'em robots." Tek says smirking as her hacked andromedon punches a red mec hard and makes it stagger.

"Sis, get close and hack it. We'll hold them back." Wolf calls as he throws a grenade and it explodes a dark green fluid onto the mecs and melts off parts of their metal parts and makes it screech mechanically.

"Got it bro." Tek says trying to run behind all the walls and pillars as she kept getting closer.

"Now!" Wolf yells and they all open fire at once and hits almost all of them except for the last red mec still standing. "Alright, let's…" Excetra shakes his shoulder and points toward the sky. "Oh crap." Wolf says seeing a dropship flying in. "Owl, I want you to open what?" He asks looking back to Excetra as she shakes his shoulder again and points behind them to see another dropship. "Sis! Get that hack!" Wolf yells as it seems Tek is dead close.

Tek frowns as her GREMLIN flies off. "Come on." She seethes as she looks to her pad and sighs in relief. "Got access. Initiating the hack." She says as they hear the telltale climbing whine before it beeps. "I'm in!" She calls as she recalls her GREMLIN back. "We are in. The tower is ours!" Tek says into the comms as she runs back to the group as Firebrand flew in with the dropships starting to drop off their troops and starts to fire at Firebrand.

"Copy that. Shen, initiate the hack on our end." Central orders as the whole squad fires out of the door at whatever they can as Owl sets herself up on Catfish's shoulder.

"Can you take it easy with that?!" Catfish demands.

Owl frowns. "I'm sorry. Do you want to be shot instead?"

Catfish sighs and goes back to firing his own weapon. "Go ahead." He says as he activates his suit and it locks up and creates a shield.

Owl shakes her head before continuing to fire as the energy in the tower changes to a bright orange color and hits the sky at a certain height as it creates of large field of the orange color spreading outward. Wolf frowns as he tries to take aim before seeing the organic troops clutch their heads in some kind of pain.

"I thought I saw Psi energy coming from their heads." Merlin says watching them as the door closes and Firebrand takes off.

Wolf blinks confused. "But if they were connected to the network then…" They all stop and quickly turns to Excetra who was looking at them confused.

"What?" Excetra hisses as she turns off her plasma shotgun and slings it behind her.

Merlin chuckles a bit. "Oh, I see. Hive mind with your queen somewhere?"

Excetra tilts her head before nodding.

Wolf looks to Merlin. "That's good…right?"

Merlin nods. "Yep. She isn't connected to the Psi network at all. She's connected to a hive mind network. Which begs the question why the queen hasn't used it to find us."

Excetra slithers her tongue out a bit and tastes the slight fear. "I am…disgraced. I am…not counted…as a…daughter and…sister."

Merlin smiles. "Well, that clears that up. Now who wants to watch the speaker get pummeled to death?" He asks going over to the screen and tries to find the channel.

"Oh! Me! Me me!" Tek cheers as she sits down on one of the chairs and sets her GREMLIN to record at the highest quietly.

Wolf sighs. "Why not? Would be fun to see their faces when it all comes crashing down on them." He says sitting down with the rest as Merlin gets the channel up.

"Here we go." Merlin says as the address was about to happen.

* * *

"Advent assures us this breakthrough will be available to all citizens immediately." The spokeswoman says as the screen behind her changes to a live feed from the event. "We go live to the Speaker for more."

A thin man in a black suit and dark glasses looks mostly to the crowd and occasionally the camera as he addresses the audience. "Fellow citizens. For twenty years we have put our trust in advent, in the Elders - because we believed a better future is possible for all. Today, that trust, that belief, has been rewarded." He spoke as the screen behind shows advent troopers saluting before it changes with static to a picture of them without their helmets and the city behind them burning in the night before it changes back.

"Advent peacekeeping forces are traveling across the world carrying the greatest gift from the elders." The Speaker continues as it showed dropships flying into a rather peaceful sunset before it changes to footage of when a fleet of them attacked a resistance camp that was captured by a civilian at the camp and shows explosions and laser fire happening all around as the ones watching were shocked at what's happening.

"A revolutionary gene therapy yes. But so much more." The Speaker says unaware of what's going on as the screen changes from DNA monuments to footage of when X-Com invaded the black site and shows people in pods and lifeless. "This is the end to disease. To decay. To pain. The beginnings of a new tomorrow." He says as it now showed people on hooked up onto tables and unresponsive and then a hallway of the regular advent troopers as they are made. "Available to all of us. Today."

The Speaker nods a bit as the captured footage now kept playing on the screen. "Truly humanity finally takes its rightful place amongst the stars." He says before realizing the crowd was getting angry and looks behind him to see the footage playing and frowns before turning back to the crowd as they get up on stage and charge at him.

* * *

"Woo! It's time for a beat down!" Wolf cheers as Firebrand lands on the ship.

Excetra smiles a bit. "Not…bad."

Tek laughs as she gets up and collects her things. "I did some work too."

"Don't flatter yourself, kid." Catfish says as they all start to get off the dropship and drop their weapons and armor near the armory as every engineer grabs them and start to work on them.

Tek grins. "Come on. Admit it. I am the best at editing."

"Don't count it a win just yet." Central says from up on the catwalk as he looks down at the group. "Fine job. Everyone. Now, you will need to get ready for a final assault. The engineering team will be checking your weapons and armor and make sure they are top shape. You are going into the enemy stronghold and we are not taking second chances."

Wolf looks around. "The commander here yet?"

Central shakes his head. "Last I heard, he got out from the riots breaking out. Said he's coming in with a very well done piece of machinery. I have no idea what that means with him."

Wolf shrugs. "So how long?"

Central sighs. "We have ten hours. Use it wisely. Anything you want to eat or drink, just ask the cooks. You might be getting your last supper. Dismissed." He says before walking away.

Wolf looks to everyone as they all look to each other. "So…last fight."

Catfish nods as he takes out a cigar. "Yep." He says lightning it.

Tek sighs. "At least I got good footage everywhere I could."

Owl smiles. "And I'm glad I left my combination lock to Shen so when this is over, you guys might have a chance." She says looking to Wolf and Excetra.

Merlin chuckles as he strokes his bread. "Already a home when you get back huh? Don't you need to be married for that?" He asks grinning.

Wolf playfully frowns. "Shut up old timer."

Merlin grins. "Respect your elders kid."

Wolf smirks. "But not the alien ones."

"Amen." Catfish says before walking away. "I'm getting me a big meal."

"I'll join you. Tek?" Owl asks following him.

Tek smiles as she looks to her. "Be right there." She says before looking to Wolf and Excetra. "Good luck you two." She says before rushing off after Owl and Catfish.

Merlin chuckles. "Hope you have a happy life. We are going to make sure you live your life that you were meant to have." He says winking before walking off. "I wonder if they have good old steak." He asks himself.

Wolf sighs as he slouches a bit. "Bloody hell." He says wiping away his sweat a bit before he feels a clawed hand on his shoulder and looks to Excetra smiling. "Ten hours. How do you want to spend it?"

Excetra looks to him with a blank look. 'We might die. This will be not only a tough mission for them but for me well as I will be doing two. And I don't know if I can face my queen. I…' She sighs. "I…want to…" She slowly grabs his hand and lightly holds it. "Spend it…with you."

Wolf smiles softly. "Come on Excetra. Let's enjoy our possible last free hours." He says pulling her to their room.

Excetra gulps inwardly as she kept her eyes on Wolf. 'We have been through so much. On so many problems and we faced them all. He accepted me when they would reject me. Even going so far as too…' She stops as she remembers the kiss she gave. 'Wolf…I will give you the best hours you can spend.' She thinks as she looks him over.


	13. Ritual

Excreta slithers her tongue out every once in a while as she sat on the bed and pets the end of her tail almost in a nervous fashion, waiting for Wolf to come back with their meals as she looks at herself in the reflection of the screen of the terminal. 'Will he even enjoy it? He has been thinking about it.' She thinks to herself as she kept petting her tail harder.

Excetra slithers her tongue out in frustration before looking to the terminal. 'How would they…no. I have to do this with whatever I know about humans. Maybe I can try something that is different from humans. But what can I…' She stops as she flicks her tongue in her view. 'Oh. Maybe that can work.'

She hears the door open and quickly brings her tongue back in as Wolf comes in with a few boxes. "Hey, lady. I got some food for us. Figure might as well fill up on what we can." He says sitting down and setting the boxes in between them. "Last supper…maybe and a few hours to do what we want." He says taking out a box and opens it for her to see meat slabs. "Here." He says giving it to her.

Excetra blinks and takes and holds the box. "Thank…you."

Wolf nods and smiles. "Here's to us and to, for a lack for a better word, live long and prosper." He says chuckling a bit as he takes his own and opens it up to his meal of just simple rice and some soup. "Have to enjoy the classics." He says taking out a spoon and starts to eat.

Excetra nods and picks up a slab of meat before eating it whole and swallows. "Fun?" She hisses as she looks to him.

Wolf nods. "Yep. Having fun…best we can, though." He says picking at his food with a spoon.

Excetra nods slowly and puts her box down and sighs.

Wolf raises an eyebrow and looks to her. "You okay?"

Excetra shakes her head slightly as he puts his meal down. "Fine."

Wolf shakes his head. "You don't seem like it. What's the problem?"

Excetra sighs and looks to him as she taps her claws onto her other claws and makes a clicking sound each time. "What would…you like?"

Wolf raises an eyebrow confused. "Excuse me?"

Excetra sighs. "What would…you like…to do?"

Wolf is still confused. "I don't know what like you are asking here."

Excetra points to the bed they are sitting on now and Wolf follows her pointing before stopping. "Oh…that like." He clears his throat. "Well…I uh…I kinda want to…man I am still bad at this." He says to himself as he rubs the back of his head and looks away.

Excetra blinks and slithers her tongue out and tastes the air that is filled with his increasing fear and arousal. 'He wants to…but he fears of what might happen. Maybe…' She reaches over and places a hand on his shoulder and he turns to look at her. 'Maybe I do have to lead a bit.' She starts to lean her head in as he seems to follow what she is doing.

Wolf gulps halfway to his destination as he keeps watching Excetra. 'Holy shit is she hot. And she is doing this first?' He stops thinking as they met their lips and Excetra pushes him back a little as she moves the boxes of food out of the way and places a hand on his chest as she pushes him down onto the bed before she pulls back a little.

Wolf starts to blink widely as he tries to get his bearings. "Whoa. That was…amazing. So…you want to…really do this?"

Excetra stares at him as she brings her tail up onto the bed and coil around them before nodding.

Wolf sighs and leans up on his arms. "Okay." He says before looking her over. "So…how do you want to do this?"

Excetra looks him over before reaching over and lightly runs a claw over his chest before looking to him to see his reaction and sees that he was watching and only squirming a bit.

Wolf lets out a smile and chuckles. "Okay. Clothes off. At least you don't have to bother with anything." He says looking to her not wearing anything at all. Not even her headdress.

Excetra looks down at herself as she lets Wolf up and he starts to take off his shirt and boots. "Good…figure?" She asks before looking to him and stares at his chiseled chest.

Wolf looks to her and hums. "Yeah. You are a sexy lady after all. Don't call you that much now, though." He muses to himself as he starts to undo his belt.

Excetra watches him carefully as he stands up and sits down on the bed and waits for him as he takes off his pants. "Good…figure."

Wolf smiles and gains a red tint. "I'm guessing that's me. Thanks." He says before sitting down on the bed again before her tail falls onto his lap.

Excetra smiles lightly as she leans towards him and wraps her arms around him and leans her head against his. "Good…mate."

Wolf smiles and turns his head at her. "You too. So…how do you want to start out?" Excetra looks at him closely before sticking her tongue out and licks at his neck and makes him jump a little as she tastes the high arousal he was giving off. "Easy there." He says trying to relax.

Excetra reaches down and grabs his hand and squeezes his hand gently before pulling her head back. "Look." She hisses and looks to her tail on his lap and he follows her gaze to find that the part of her tail on his lap was wet somehow. "It comes…from here." She hisses as she guides his hand down below her torso and he feels her wet slit.

Wolf gulps and turns to her and tries not to look down her body. "Can we start off…like this?" He asks slowly wrapping his other arm around her waist and brings her close. "Just…lead up to it." He says smiling a bit as he gives a small kiss to her cheek.

Excetra smiles and nuzzles his cheek before kissing him and pushes him back on the bed as he hugs her and kisses back as her tail comes closer and wraps tighter around them and starts to go up his legs.

Wolf breaks the kiss and looks down to see her tail wrapping more around him as she squeezes him close. "You'll never let me go, won't you?" He asks starting to run a hand over her side.

Excetra nods slowly as she hugs him and smiles. "Fine…mate."

Wolf chuckles. "Then I guess I have to do duty as a good mate should. May I?" Excetra smirks and holds up a claw and he goes wide-eyed as he sees his underwear hanging from her claw. "Um…okay. You have pretty good stealth." He tries to laugh as he rubs his thumb on her cheek.

Excetra smiles and nuzzles him as she throws his underwear away to where the rest of his clothes are and lays down on the bed and drags him with her as she lines him up with her. "My kind…are…inflators." She hisses quietly and he starts to kiss her again as he moves his hand onto her poison sack and became curious if works like a human's and starts to massage it and she pulls back from the kiss and raises an eyebrow at him and he stops.

"Sorry. Curious." Wolf says chuckling nervously as he lifts his hand away. "Let's see. A snake so…" He reaches down to her tail and grabs the end of her tail and she freezes up. "Gotcha." He smirks as he starts to massage the tip of her tail and makes her shiver as her claws scratch him lightly. "Easy. Just enjoy this." He says smiling as he kept going. Excetra gulps and tries to keep her shivering under control before the feeling suddenly stops and she looks to see Wolf just smiling at her. "Nick."

Excetra blinks confused and leans up a bit. "What?" She hisses.

Wolf chuckles. "Nick Lancer. That's my real name."

Excetra blinks. "Nick…Lancer?" She tries to say.

Nick nods. "Yep. That's me. We don't even share our real names with our comrades. Prevents us being in trouble in public if we are captured and forced to give information."

Excetra stares at him before smiling. "Nick…Lancer…good name."

Nick chuckles. "Yeah. Now then, shall we?" He asks running a hand over her side and her tail.

Excetra shivers as she brings him closer to her. "Go…ahead."

Nick nods and kisses her as he wraps his arms around her and runs his hands over her back as Excetra licks his lips and gasps lightly as she felt him enter her slit and claws hard on his back as she felt him still move inside her. Nick smiles into the kiss a bit as he keeps her close as he starts to moves his hips against her slowly. Excetra gulps and keeps kissing him as she shivers and tries to move and wraps her tail around them tighter.

Nick chuckles a bit as he pulls back a bit as Excetra smirks a bit. "What?" Excetra licks his neck and chuckles before gasping as he moves to a certain spot in her. "Feels good, right?" Nick asks as he starts to thrust faster into her.

Excetra hisses and leans up and kisses him hard as she starts to claw him harder and bares her fangs before he actually pulls back and kisses the large fang peeking out from her mouth and makes her stop for a bit before gasping again as he starts to move again as her tail wraps harder and he feels his joints crack like it was relieving pressure.

Nick gulps as he wraps his arms tighter. "Easy. You could oh forget it." He says as he felt his ball joint crack as her claws dig more into his back and just continued to move in and out of her as she hisses loudly and wraps her tail more around them. "Better get ready." Nick grunts as he holds onto her sides hard.

Excetra hisses at him and glares before shivering hard as a tingle travels down her tail and ends up to the tip of her tail which he felt and smirks as he roughly grabs her tail and makes her freeze up before shivering more as her claw marks were all over his back and she digs deeper into his back and hits some of his bones.

Nick groans in pain as he felt her claws and tries to move his back less was moving his hips fast into Excetra as she kisses him again and tries to push up into him in time with his movements before she pulls her head and snaps her jaws at him.

Nick tries to chuckle in amusement but groans again. "Here it comes." He groans out and she hisses loudly at him. "Okay then. Here." He groans as he hangs tightly onto her and stops against her and she hisses loudly as her tail wraps tighter and makes his body creak as he groans in pain before she slowly relaxes and loosens her grip with her tail before he slowly puts her back down on the bed. "So…?"

Excetra pants as she stares up at him and removes her claws from his back and looks to them dripping blood. "Sor…sorry."

Nick shakes his head and pushes her hands down. "It's fine. I don't mind." He says leaning down and kisses her cheek.

Excetra smiles lightly and sighs in relief and looks between them for a few seconds before looking back at him. "You…are…the first…to mate…with us."

Nick chuckles. "Then I guess I should be honored."

Excetra rolls her eyes a bit and reaches up with a claw and pokes his chest. "Just with…me."

Nick smirks. "Just with you. So I have to be given medals and ranks by you?"

Excetra taps his head and hisses amused before wrapping her arms around him and brings him up closer to her. "I…love…you."

Nick smiles and hugs her back. "Love you too. Now then…what do you want to do now?"

Excetra slithers her tongue out a bit and licks at his neck as she tastes his scents. "Rest."

Nick nods. "We can do that." He says rolling them over halfway and brings the covers around them. "Now you can rest up easier."

Excetra smiles and kisses the side of his lips and lays her head down on the pillow and starts to close her eyes with Nick following close behind.

* * *

"Hey, guys! If you two are asleep in there, wake up! Commander will be here in just a few minutes." Owl yells outside their door.

Nick groans and opens his eyes and smiles at the sight of Excetra sleeping and brings up a finger and boops her snout and makes her hiss and open her eyes to him. "Hey, sexy lady."

Excetra hisses playfully at him before they both sit up as she starts to unwrap her tail from him. "Go…good?" She hisses as he gets up and starts to dress.

Nick nods. "Yeah. Now try calling me Wolf out there. I haven't told our team yet. Still would be better to keep it quiet until it's over."

Excetra flicks her tongue out and starts to think as to their endgame. 'Will it even be over if the Elders are defeated?'

Nick sighs as he stands and stretches. "Come on. Let's see the commander and maybe we can finally get some work done." He says going over to his uniform and looks back at her. "Might be able to hide, but I would take a quick rinse."

Excetra was confused until she looks down at herself and notices the mess on her. "Ah. I see." She says as she gets up and heads for the bathroom.

"Remember, quick shower. Just a rinse. We don't want to keep the commander waiting." Nick says passing by as he heads for the door and hears the water running.

Excetra sighs in relief as she felt the water wash over her and starts to clean her off. 'I mated. And with a viable partner. He fits the criteria needed. Noble no, but strong and able to fend off many of us at once with just a sword.' She thinks before stopping. 'I mated.' She thinks and starts to smile. 'I mated and found a partner.' She thinks happily before sighing in relief again. 'I found my life.'

* * *

Nick sighs as he adjusts his shirt and waits with his team as everyone else on the ship waits near the wall of the engineering and cargo area of the ship. "When is he coming in again?"

Central looks at his watch. "In about…"

"Radar contact." Shen calls from the intercom as she watches in the situation room.

Central looks up a bit. "How far?"

"One mile. Approaching fast." Shen relays before the hangar door open. "I…didn't do that."

Central sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "It's the commander." He says before the hangar door drops and they hear a loud engine roar before a gray silver car drives up the ramp at high speeds before it turns and drifts towards them before stopping dead close to Central. "And he decided to take a flashy car here." He says in disdain.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." They hear the driver say as the door opens from the back end of the door and out steps a heavily cloaked person with a large hood that covered his face in shadows. "Sorry. Not even you guys can see me just yet." The commander says as he turns off the car and tosses the keys at Central. "Don't scratch it." He says walking by as the hangar door closes.

Central raises an eyebrow. "You didn't steal this, did you?"

The commander chuckles as he starts to head to the lab. "Only if you count it advent controlled and we are X-Com." He says still chuckling as everyone stares at him. "That's for Wolf and his mate by the way." The commander calls over his shoulder and everyone looks to Nick in shock.

Central blinks once before sighing and pocketing the keys. "I'll give it to them once this is over." He says starting to follow the commander. "Everyone, back to your posts. Team, suit up."

Nick blinks shocked and surprised as he stared the car that he could only recognize as one of the fastest cars in the world. "Hello? Earth to Wolf?" Tek asks knocking on his head.

"I think the kid's broken." Merlin says before Excetra comes slithering in and sees a new vehicle in the cargo bay and Nick staring at it before slithering up to him and slaps him across the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Nick demands turning to her as he rubs his head.

Excetra crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow. "Okay, you two. Let's get suited up for our last fight." Catfish says smoking his last cigar. "Remind me to buy more of these when this is over." He says heading upstairs.

"Wait up." Tek calls climbing the stairs after him.

Owl sighs and looks to the two staring at each other in playful hostility. "Easy you two. Save it for when it's over." She says walking away and heading upstairs.

Nick chuckles a bit. "Yeah, we are way ahead of that." He whispers to Excetra and she smirks a bit before turning away and starts to follow everyone. "Oh come on, that was good."

Excetra rolls her eyes as Nick tries to defend himself.

* * *

The commander sighs as he steps into the lab and sees only Shen and Tygan working with a suit on a table. "Hey, guys. Are we ready?"

Shen looks over and smiles. "Yeah. Just need to get you in the suit. After that, we connect you to the Psi network and you can enter the body we have set up and you can end up being the badass protagonist in this story." She jokes and taps the glass case holding the new avatar body held in suspicion.

The commander chuckles. "Yeah…no. I think that's our team heading out. Now then, shall we?" He asks walking over.

Shen places a hand on his chest and stops him and Tygan sees he's only a foot taller than her. "The cloak good sir."

The commander grins under the hood. "Oh, you want to see my face do you, my dear?"

Shen rolls her eyes and hits him upside the head. "Shut up and take it off. We were the ones who saw you and what you look like when we got you out of the suit."

The commander sighs. "Fine. Let's get this over with. Set up the connection and systems. I'll…try to get into the suit." He says as he starts to pull off his cloak and puts it on a table and takes the suit off the table and starts to open it up. "Seems it's easier to get out than in." He muses as he starts to slip in.

Shen smirks as she looks over his form. "Only because you got some bigger muscles."

The commander smirks. "Yep. I knew you were going to go there." He says zipping up the suit and pulls on the hood and gets on the table as Tygan hooks up the pipes and wire connectors to his suit.

She leans down to him. "Only because you push around and don't give way. So give em hell."

Tygan sighs and shakes his head amused as he places a yellow filled vial into the avatar holding container and it starts to empty into it. "There we go. I've infused this material with the entirety of our viable Elder DNA. We won't get another chance at this."

The commander rolls his eyes as Shen starts to list off the checklist. "Final connection is set. Power levels adequate. One more look at the buffer…"

"Shen. Relax. I'll be fine." The commander reassures as he beats Central to it and makes him smirk a little.

Shen sighs and takes a breath. "Okay. I'm good. But…we are ready." She says looking down to the commander and hits something on the pad she was holding before an arm holding the suit mask starts to come down. "See you on the other side." He says before the mask locks into place.

Tygan nods as he starts the transfer from his terminal and the commander felt himself leave his body as he sees the visions he has been facing when he first came out of his first suit.

"Synthesis nearing completion." Tygan says as he watches the transfer screen carefully for anything wrong before Central looks to the avatar body and sees its head move towards them. "Now Lily." Tygan calls seeing his readings start to max out.

"Initiating network connection." Shen says quickly typing on her pad.

Central leans over the commander as he felt himself slip away from his body. "Good luck commander."

The commander gasps as he jerks and felt himself drowning before it suddenly went away and he lands on the hard metal floor. "Bloody hell!" He groans as he felt his muscles start to unlock. "Is this my new body? Feels like it since my butt has some form fitting pants." He tries to chuckle before Shen kicks his side lightly. "Barely hurts."

Shen shakes her head and pulls him up. "Come on. We have to get you ready." She says starting to lead him along.

* * *

"Gate is primed and ready sir." An officer informs as Central looks at the world globe.

Central nods. "Patch me through. Alright, people. The world got its wake up call. And now they know the truth." Tygan looks up from the gate terminal for a moment at that. "Advent is a lie. And their time is up. They've got a full-fledged war on their hands now." Nick checks his shotgun as Excetra tosses him his sword and he catches it and straps it to himself as everyone checks their weapons and armor. "While the aliens struggle to contain our world, we're gonna make a move on theirs. It won't be easy." Shen frowns slightly as she changes the power levels slightly as she watches over the commander not moving in his suit as Rover hovers nearby in her new look. "But you're used to that." The commander watches Merlin as he explains how to work the Psi Amp and tries it himself and it charges up brighter and stronger than Merlin's at the moment and he frowns at the commander. The commander just smirks behind his mask and talks for a bit and holds up his fingers before pinching them down to a small size and Merlin starts to yell obscenities at him. "You did what was needed. You never gave up the fight." Nick and Excetra waits in the corridor leading to the gate as they waited with everyone else and Excetra slowly wraps her hand around his and smiles to him as he smiles back before they see the commander's new avatar body walk down the hall with a large gun on his back and a Psi Amp on his hip before everyone stands at attention and salutes as Excetra just stands straight and had her hands behind her back before the commander stops in front of her and stares at her. Excetra slowly looks to him and felt a slight fear as he seems to stare her down before holding out his hand and Excetra blinks before smiling and grabs his hand and they shake. "You are XCOM. And you're going to end this. Humanity is counting on us people."

"Good luck." The commander hears both Central and the fragmented Elders from the Psi network at the same time.


	14. Strike Down

The commander gasps as he jumps through the portal and lands onto the alien metal ground before picking himself up and looks around. "Huh. Talk about architecture." He muses to himself before he hears boots clanking the ground behind him and looks to see the others slipping through as they take a deep breath that was stolen from traveling through the gate. "Welcome to…" The commander stops as he looks behind the portal. "Huh. So that's a Kraken." He says and the others quickly look and stop at the sight of the giant squid traveling by the glass and they look to the ground level and see the ocean floor. "You getting this?"

"We are. This feat of engineering is amazing. Putting a base on the deep ocean floor. I would love to know how they accomplished this." Tygan says as he watches through their cameras.

"Such loss." A high echoey voice calls out as everyone started to aim everywhere and find the source. "Such needless waste, yet you force our hand. Yet still we offer peace. Rejoin us and your world will be spared."

Excetra answers for them all and hisses angrily to it.

"One of ours. You offer this specimen's peace, but you do not take ours." The echoey voice says.

Excetra slithers her tongue out and held a frown to her face as she knew they wouldn't see the owner of the voice for a while.

"Very well. If you shall choose to join their cause, we will send one of ours to deal with you as we have all the rest." The echoey voice says before hearing nothing else.

"Excetra, what did that thing mean?" Nick asks looking to her.

Excetra hisses forlornly. "I…have been…marked for…death…by my…own."

Nick looks the most worried as the rest knew she would hesitate for a bit. "You sure you want to be here?"

Excetra looks to him and nods. "I…need to…face them…and end…it."

Nick nods slowly before they all turn towards the areas ahead and sees it was filled with many open rooms with alien terminals and capsules. "What's in here?" Tek asks looking into one and frowns as she could barely see into it.

Excetra frowns as she slithers her tongue out and kept looking ahead as everyone kept looking around to see what they can learn. "You know what's coming." She hears and looks to see the commander beside her looking at her. "I know that look. My second in command always say I get that look at times."

Excetra stares at him before nodding.

The commander sighs and hefts his large psionic repeater over his shoulder. "Do what you must. I won't hold you back. I mean…how do I hold you anyway? Hold you like a real snake and grab at your neck and tail? I don't think that would work with you."

Excetra raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms with a slight smirk on her face at that.

The commander chuckled. "Knew that would get a smile out of you. Now move on. Scout ahead if you have to. I'll lead your mate and his comrades." He says and she could swear he winked at her behind his mask before he walks away.

Excetra stares at him before shaking her head and hefts her plasma shotgun up and slithers ahead as the commander gets the others into cover positions as they follow slightly to the side of Excetra and tries to stay in the middle.

Excetra slithers her tongue out and tastes the salty air and slowly turns her gun around a corner and sees nothing before turning forward again before stopping and lowers her gun and waits as she stares at the doorway ahead of her.

The commander turns to Tek as he peeks above the cover and spots nothing. "Give me a scan."

Tek nods and activates her GREMLIN to which it floats up a few feet before it extends all its hover boards and it lights up as a scan went around the area. "Okay…got a few mutons…andromedon…red mechs…and that's it for this area." She says giving him the tablet.

The commander nods as he holds up the tablet and looks around through it and spots their positions. "Okay. Owl. Stay back and try to pick them off from the dead middle. You need to see them all. Wolf, you and Catfish move up ahead and try to open up with heavy attacks. Merlin, Tek, you are in the middle. Keep up the support. Don't use the lance unless you have to." He orders before looking to Excetra through a doorway and sees her just standing upright. "As for her, let her do what she wants. This is her problems that are coming in." He says before giving the tablet back to Tek who then quickly runs off to the right with everyone as Nick gives a worried last look before rushing off to the group of mutons and red mechs.

Excetra slithers her tongue out as she still stared at the doorway before hearing hissing and looks to see another viper coming from around the doorway that is with black scales and a gray underbelly scales as she slithers up and her eldest sister looks up to her with blue slitted eyes while adorning gold armor based on the shape of the standard issued armor they pass out with a standard issue plasma rifle and grenades before Excetra hisses at the sight of the green alien blade strapped to her eldest sister's back.

"Sisstha." Excetra simply says not bringing up her shotgun.

Sisstha hisses back harshly. "Traitor. You brought dishonor to our whole entire family. You know how that makes us look to the Elders?"

Excetra lets a smirk through. "Yes and I don't regret it. I rather be dishonored than working for them any longer. They are leading each and every race to extinction. After all, they just want our DNA to make themselves stronger and immortal." She says pressing a small button near the trigger on her shotgun. "They have no care for us."

Sisstha hisses under breath as she powers up her plasma rifle. "They do care and once I am queen, I will lead our race to the mantle where we belong." She says as six more vipers slither up behind her with the regular coloring of the vipers but with black armor instead of gold like their leader and the same armament of plasma rifles and grenades.

Excetra hums as she taps her chin. "Would that be in the science lab or the shelf where we collect dust?" She asks humorously and receives hisses from all of them. "Besides…" She hefts her shotgun up to them and aims at her possible soon to be dead elder sister. "What are they going to do us…no. Not only our race but all of them, including the humans. What do you think they will do once the Elders achieve their objective and gain immortality and the research they need?"

Sisstha hisses in a low tone as she brings up her rifle and points at Excetra as her sisters do the same from behind her. "Die a traitor's death." Sisstha hisses to her before Excetra smirks and presses her trigger first and sends out a ball of energy at them that swirls with green lightning before they all jumped out of the way and behind the walls and terminals as Excetra went behind a crate and the green ball of energy exploded where they were and took out the ground to reveal just the supports and glass ground below.

Excetra chuckles as she reloads the charge pack. "Did I forget to mention my new commander likes to upgrade everything that can be done and give it to everyone who needs it?" She asks chuckling as she brings a hand to the handle on her back while listening to anything.

"You little cloaca!" Sisstha yells and hisses at the same time as she peeks around the corner of the doorway.

Excetra sighs. "Called worse." She says back rolling her eyes at the immature behavior.

Nick tries to watch over the fight between Excetra and the other vipers before the commander covers his view. "Hey. Head in the game. She can take care of herself." He says knocking on his head.

"But that's an ADVENT Commander over there!" Nick growled back as he glanced back to the fight.

The Commander knew that Nick's fears weren't unfounded. The rank of Commander was only given to ten individuals in the entire ADVENT command network. They were the best of the best both in planning and in combat. They reported directly to the Elder Council and the Elders, and although they were still technically beneath the leader of one of the alien species they did not report to them. They were also high autonomous being able to command their force however they wanted with little oversight from their superiors and often commanding entire ADVENT units.

In all of XCOM's long history of combating the aliens they had only managed to kill four of the ten commanders and all of those fights had been an almost disaster with them barely being able to scrape out a victory. Out of the six remaining commanders the only ones the Commander considered a huge threat where Sisstha commander of the 2nd Viper Core and renown for her cruelty, Vissta a viper commanding the 3rd Viper Core and rival of Sisstha known for her tactical brilliance, and finally Tyler R. Harrington commander of the 77th Human Volunteer Group or better known as the Dragoons who were the only independent humans working for the ADVENT administration. Personally, the commander only knew the Dragoons by more than just hearsay having seen the recording of Tyler himself wiping out all of Grizzly Team by himself. Though this happened before he himself was recovered by XCOM he had decided to do his best to avoid his comrades from meeting that particular man who even now is feared by XCOM personnel as 'The Dragon'.

"I know but that is Excreta's battle, not ours. We just have to trust her with it. Now eyes up, we have our own opponents!" The commander yelled as a group of two mutons approached their position.

Excetra taps the hilt of her blade as she kept listening and then hears slithering ahead and turns her head slightly as she slips her sword out a bit as she tucks the shotgun away. She sighs and peeks out before pulling her head back as a plasma shot tore through part of the crate. "Damn. This won't be easy." She says to herself as she looks to the grenades in her armor. "Maybe…" She stops as she looks around and smirks.

Sisstha hisses under her breath as her sisters slithers up to where Excetra was hiding behind the crate and approaches from both sides. "I'll say somewhat of a good word about you, at least you tried." She says grinning before her sisters jump around the corner and stop suddenly as they lower their weapons. "What are you waiting for? Shoot her!" She yells and quickly rushes over and stops at the sight of a single grenade on the ground with a tablet nearby with the words 'Upgraded.' Sisstha raises an eyebrow before the grenade starts to beep and they all go wide-eyed and jumps away and the grenade explodes with brown liquid that suddenly caught on fire and splashes down on the vipers and they start to hiss and scream in pain as the fire starts to burn and heat them up from the inside and cooks their organs.

"You coward cloaca!" Sisstha yells as she quickly looks around for tail or head of the traitorous viper as she tries to move her tail away from the flaming liquid.

Excetra's chuckle echoes as she slithers along the ground carefully. "Look who's talking. You seem to love being with our sisters and hiding behind them. Why don't you fight yourself? Get into the thick of things? You could even learn how to fight." She echoes out as she takes out her sword.

"I'll show you. Come on out and I'll treat you to how a traitorous sister should be dealt with." Sisstha calls out before slithering her tongue out and tastes the air before stopping and turns her rifle behind her and tries to fire but was stopped by a fusion blade and Excetra in front of her as the shot went into the ground.

Excetra huffs. "Weak." She hisses before quickly slithering backward as Sisstha quickly takes out her green blade and takes a swipe at her. Excetra slithers her tongue out and frowns. "Poison."

Sisstha hisses angrily. "You would do your best to stay away if you want to fight. If you want to quicken your death, then come taste my blade." She declares holding up her sword.

Excetra stares at her before smirking. "I have already tasted one and he's human and I mated."

Sisstha paused in confusion before she worked out what her traitor sister was saying before hissing loudly and launching herself at Excetra. As Sisstha tries to strike at her Excetra kept trying to block and watch the way her opponent moved. "You were never one of our race's proud daughters! You should just be food for the hatchlings!" Sisstha yells as they keep striking their swords and Excetra notices drops of the poison fly off Sisstha's blade and land on her armor which makes a sizzling sound before it settled.

Excetra frowned as she looked back to Sisstha hissing under breath as they kept striking blades before Excetra flicks the pin on the grenade in her pocket before leaning forward and appearing to attempt to strike from below. Sisstha prepared to strike downward in order to block before Excetra suddenly pulled back and slithered behind the terminals. Sisstha looked to where she was and frowned as she saw the grenade on the ground a second before it exploded right in front of her. Excetra saw her opponent's sword flying upward before it was suddenly grabbed by a tongue and pulled back into the smoke as it cleared and showed Sisstha still up, but with her golden armor now stained with soot and with pieces blown off. All that remained where only the middle of the chest piece and her headgear now blown back to pieces and honestly made the headgear look menacing on her as she hissed towards Excetra.

Excetra hums as she looks her over. "That's a good look. You look intimidating like that." She says smirking a bit as she remembers Nick's ramblings. 'Keep them busy. Insult and compliment. Anything while looking for the openings that will grow bigger each time you try a jab at them.'

Sisstha hisses at her. "I'll keep that in mind." She hisses before rushing up to her as Excetra coiled downward and dodged the sword flying above her before lifting up her coiled tail towards her before uncoiling it just as fast making it hit Sisstha straight below the broken armor making her hiss in pain and hold a hand to the area as Excetra quickly slithered back and readies her sword.

Excetra took a deep breath trying to stay calm as Sisstha charged and made a swipe to the side which Excetra blocked before Sisstha knocks it to the side and quickly moved back before striking across Excetra's armor making her hiss as she tried to retreat backward only for Sisstha to keep up the assault, swiping at Excetra whose pale attempts to block failed. Seeing an opening Sisstha knocked the sword aside before cutting slightly above Excetra's armor making Excetra hiss in pain as she held a hand to the large cut that was now bleeding her orange blood.

Sisstha chuckled. "And the poison should be hurting right about... now." She says giving a hissing chuckle as Excetra groans in pain as the poison was coming on fast.

"Excetra!" Nick yells across the large gap seeing her position.

Excetra looks to see Nick trying to hold off a large group of mutons and archons. "Is that your pathetic mate?" Sisstha asked looking over at him before looking back at her. "I shall then bring the same pain as I did upon you and you shall both remember in death who bested you." Sisstha mocked before slithering away towards Nick.

Excetra's eyes sharpened at her opponent's words and extended her tail catching Sisstha's own tail before wrapping her tail around Sisstha's tightly.

Sisstha chuckled as she turned to her. "I'm sorry. I'm not availb…" She began before stopping as Excetra struggled to get up using the wall for support. "I guess I did promise you a death. So I'll give it to you now, take it glad…" She looked down to where their tails were connected and realized Excetra was using so much muscle in her tail that she was bending Sisstha's bones. "You think you can hurt me?!" She yelled as the bones at the end of her tail broke.

Excetra hissed lowly as she made her tail move up Sisstha's. "You can insult me." She began as she broke more bones as her tail moved up Sisstha's while stopping every few seconds to jerk hard and break more bones. "You can enjoy the fact that you can kill me now that I am a traitor to the cloaca ADVENT." She says reaching below Sisstha's waist and breaks most of the bone there and making her scream in pain. "But the one thing you can't touch is my mate. His life is mine and mine is his. You will not touch us ever again." She declares before Sisstha brings up her sword quickly and tried to stab at her tail, but Excetra quickly pulled back and the sword struck Sisstha's armor and slid off into the ground. "I mean it." Excetra reminds before coiling her tail and started to slither away.

"Come back here coward!" Sisstha calls as she glares at Excetra as she slithers toward the last bit of fighting before Sisstha throws her sword and Excetra quickly lays down and the sword flies past her.

"I have enough poison in me." Excetra says getting back up and slithering away again as Tek runs up to her with her GREMLIN floating above Excetra and sprays a mist on her.

Tek sighs in relief as she checks the wound. "You'll be alright sis." She says patting her side.

"Sister?!" Sisstha yells and Tek leans and looks to the viper in confusion.

Excetra sighs. "Do not…worry about…her." She says tapping Tek's shoulder before slithering back to Nick as the last archon falls and he runs up and hugs her as she hugs back. "I'm…okay." Excetra says slithering her tongue out and tasting the fear coming from him.

Nick smiles. "I know. I'm just glad you're in one piece and not missing an arm or anything."

Excetra chuckles before Tek walks up to them and holds up Sisstha's sword. "What do you want to do with this?"

Excetra stares at it before taking it and looking it over before sighing and walks back to where Sisstha was trying to crawl away with her hands before she slithers a few feet in front of her. "I did say stay away. Keep it that way." She says before stabbing the sword into the wall hard making it go through it before slithering away.

Sisstha stares at the sword before shooting her tongue out and wraps it around the hilt before trying to pull it and makes the metal creek, but not make the sword budge.

"That's it huh?" The commander asks crossing his arms as Excetra slithers back to him.

Excetra looks to him slightly tired and nods.

The commander sighs. "You do what you must. Sometimes not the most logical, but right." He says before walking ahead. "Let's go. We got a lot of ground to cover."

Nick sighs and looks to Excetra. "Ready for more?"

Excetra smiles to him before turning back to where Sisstha is and sees her still trying to pull the sword out. "Yes. Ammo?" She asks holding up a hand and Nick chuckles before reaching into his packs and gives her a few charge packs.

Nick hits the side of her arm and smiles. "Don't waste them."

Excetra grins. "I won't." She hisses as she reloads her shotgun.

Catfish hits both of their shoulders. "Come on. We got a heck of a lot of ground to cover." He says walking past them.

Nick smiles as he checks his gun. "I hope I can hang this up on a wall someday." He says walking ahead as Excetra follows close behind.

Owl frowns as she kept a watch ahead. "I got nothing."

The commander stops and turns to Tek who looked confused before realizing what he meant and takes out her tablet and her GREMLIN scans the area and she looks around with the tablet. "Nothing. There is nothing…only at that gap." She says as they see a gap in the wall ahead of them.

The commander frowns under his mask as now stood up and keeps walking while having his repeater over his shoulder. "There is no one else. Just them." He says as everyone looks to each other either worried or confused before following him as they realized that only the first area is the one that was filled with enemies.

Tek frowns as she kept looking through the tablet. "I got signatures." She says seeing four of them on a higher level.

The commander takes a peek and sighs. "Of course." He says as they walk through the gap in the wall and sees a giant wall separating their view. "Owl, back behind the small covers. Try to find a good spot to see everything. Catfish, Wolf, with me. Excetra, you are going to bring anything you can close to you and slice off their heads…or motherboard. Tek, Merlin, support squad. We are going to only be going to one side. They want a fight with us and they will charge at us at some point and we need a long hallway." He explains waving his finger along their side of the wall. "So to the right." He says walking off to the right as he charges up his repeater.

Owl frowns as she quickly dives into cover and peeks above it and stops. "Commander…you got a brother."

The commander blinks confused as the others get into cover and he steps around the corner and stops at the sight of two archons, a red mech and another avatar looking towards them. "Well…that's something." He says before the avatar teleported away to the far side of the room as the archons fly into the air and the mech jumps down and heads toward them. "Owl. Give me a clean shot." The commander orders and Owl take aim and fires off a shot that went past the commander and hits the avatar square in the face before it stumbled and teleported up close to them in what seems like a fountain. "Excetra, Wolf. You know what to do." He calls out and both Excetra and Nick moves up close to the avatar right beside it and point their shotguns at it as the commander keeps watching the archons and mech. "Get him." He orders and both Excetra and Nick fires and hits it square in the chest and sends it knocking back into the monument in the middle of the fountain before it teleports off again. "Tek, hack the mech. Catfish, get rid of those birds." He orders and Catfish opens fire at the archons as they try to stay in the air while Tek sends her GREMLIN and makes it fly over to the mech and it access it before the mech shuts down. "Merlin, finish that bastard off." The commander orders glaring at the avatar back on the high platform. Merlin grins as he takes his psi amp and charges it up before sending out a soulfire and hits the avatar and makes it screech and explode into psi energy. "Now for me." The commander says bringing up his repeater and fires at the archon and hits it and it growls as Catfish kept firing before they try and move and gets hit by Catfish's stream of bullets and makes one of them smoke before it falls and hits the ground and explodes with the last one getting hit many times and makes it float to the ground sparking.

The archon growls toward them and raises its staff weakly before Owl takes out her pistol and hits it square in the face and makes it fall down exploding. "Down and out." Owl calls putting her pistol back into her hostler.

The commander frowns and takes a quick look around before aiming down a dark area and another avatar runs out towards them before taking cover behind a small wall. "Fuck me." He says before putting his repeater away and takes out his psi amp and charges before holding a hand to the dark ball of psi and then holds out his hand before a powerful beam of psi fires off towards the avatar and hits it all over and destroys parts of its suit and the cover it was behind.

The avatar screeches before teleportation away up onto a platform where a gate like structure is before the gate activates and three mutons appear from it. Catfish holds up his arm and aims toward them and fires off a hellfire tank full of fire at the area and covers the whole platform in fire and makes the mutons roar in pain and anger as the avatar screeches out before teleportation away and still had licks of flames over itself and receives a shot to the head by Owl's lancer and teleports away again only to reappear near a viper with different armor and looks to it and stops as the viper raises its gun at it and fires off a shot and tears through its armor and makes it teleport away again. Nick grins as the avatar teleports in front of him and he taps his shoulder before holding his shotgun up to his head and the avatar turns to him before Nick fires point blank and knocks him back dead onto the ground as it then explodes into psi energy.

"Dead and out." Nick calls out and the commander gives him a thumbs up as he kept looking around.

The commander still frowns as he kept looking around before stopping. "You have to be kidding." He says as they look to him confused before two of the gates activates and they all reload while it's happening until another avatar teleports in.

"Commander, we are reading heavy psi energy coming from that avatar. That seems to be the last one." Central informs over the comms as they all watch as the commander charges up his psi amp. "Commander?"

The commander huffs as the avatar teleports right around the corner of where he was. "Not going to work asshole!" He yells and fires off a null lance beam at it and destroys the cover and parts of its suit and cracks the mask as it roars at them before teleportation away and Excetra reels her head back as she looks around before the avatar reappears and she sends out her tongue and snatches the avatar before bringing it to her and wraps her tail hard around it and quickly takes out her sword and slices it across the chest and makes it screech before it teleports away and to the top of the gate platform where a group of vipers and advent soldiers appeared. "Catfish. Give them the business side of a grenade." He orders walking up the ramp to the gate.

Catfish takes the grenade launcher off his back and loads a grenade into it before aiming into the air and launches it at the vipers into the middle of them as they all hiss and try to get away before explodes into a splash of fire and covers them in flames and starts to cook them as the commander walks by them and up to the avatar and taps his shoulder to which the avatar looks to him and tries to teleport away, but the commander grabs his shoulder and was teleported along with him and holds his repeater up to his chest and fires away point blank and sends him straight into the ground exploding into psi energy as the rest of the squad open fires onto the soldiers and sends them flying away or in the case of one, its head chopped off when Excetra grabs it and binds it before cutting its head off.

The commander sighs as he walks back to the others. "Any problems?"

Catfish holds up a bloody arm. "Other than a muton getting close, none here."

Owl takes off her cap and wipes the sweat off her forehead. "Stayed back like you told me."

Tek smiles as she pats her GREMLIN. "Still have enough power."

Nick looks worriedly to Excetra as she taps where she was cut across the upper chest with the poison blade. "She is okay…right?"

The commander walks up and looks at the cut. "She'll be fine. She's a poison expert anyway. I doubt those fangs are for show."

Nick blushes a bit as Excetra subtly looks to him at that and she smirks a bit.

The commander sighs. "That's that I guess. The only thing left is the Elders…but we stopped their project. They aren't going to recover from this at all." He voices before the whole base started to shake and the walls warble. "Spoke too soon. Back to the portal!" He yells running off.

Everyone immediately gathers their things and runs after him as they broke into a dead sprint as they pass by the dead bodies from before in the halls before Excetra stops and looks into one of the buildings and sees a large cut about the size of a sword before Nick grabs her arm and pulls her with him as they see the portal still activate but small.

"Without the Elder's stabilizing the Psionic network, everything's going haywire! This gate's not going to hold out much longer." Shen informs over the comms as they all stop in front of the portal before it shrinks down and doesn't give off energy bolts anymore.

"Shen, tell me you got a plan B here." Central asks as he watches the whole thing from the lab cameras. Shen frowns as she works to get the gate back up before it activates on its own. "Nice work."

Shen blinks. "Wasn't anything on my end. This shouldn't even be possible…unless…"

The commander groans as he kept charging his psi amp and holds his hand to the portal to stabilize it. "Come on you bastard piece of machinery!" He yells before feeling a heavy wall enter his mind and he stops his charging to deal with the pain as the others look around and sees the psi energy being given off of the capsules littered about the base.

"Elder capsules?" Tek asks surprised as they all huddled around the now deactivated portal.

Excetra hisses menacingly before hearing a screeching and looks to the commander as his psi energy builds up before exploding outward into a shockwave as images of Elders appear in psi energy form.

The commander groans as he tries to hold back the assault the Elders were giving off. "We will reclaim what was given. We will be whole once more." The Elders call out as they pressed their assault before the commander glares at them and charges up his own psi energy in his hands and pushes the mind assault back at them and the others can see the struggle the two sides were putting up as they can see the psi energy colliding each other and makes everything spark and short out. "Your victory here means the end for all others. It will follow you as it followed us." They voiced as the commander was able to push them back more and the far off Elder projections were disappearing. "You are not ready. We must not fail."

The commander huffs as he charges up more energy in his hands. "Fuck you. We're human and that's what makes this hard." He declares before sending out a shockwave and takes out the Elders and sends them away deeper into the base. "Not a lot of time." He calls out with his hands still bright blue and turns toward the portal and activates it and charges it. "Go! Now!" He yells and they all start to run through it and the commander looks down the long hall to see the images of the Elder's floating back to him before something wraps around his waist and looks to see a wet tongue before being pulled through the portal and smacks into Excetra and sends them both to the ground. "Ow. Thanks, Excetra." He groans out as he tries to get back up again.

"Commander." Catfish calls a bit away and he looks to see him pointing his gun at a large group of advent troops, vipers, sectoids, and some kind of dogs. "Orders?"

The commander blinked before looking at the soldiers he quickly was able to identify them as none other than troops of the 77th HVG aka the Dragoons. The commander cursed in his head his squad was tired and getting low on ammo. He could see that the troops before him numbered around thirty so at least three whole squads more than they could handle right now. As the commander looked for a weakness in the enemy force his gaze stopped at the sight of one standing in the middle.

"Crap." He says seeing the silver painted advent soldier armor and maroon stripes going down the arms. "It's the Dragon." He says struggling to stand before Tek gets under his arms and helps him up as the others point their weapons at them.

The one with maroon stripes approached up to Catfish and places his hand on the barrel and makes Catfish rev it up. "Catfish. Enough. Back off for now. Everyone." The commander orders as he tries to step with Tek helping him along as Tek glares at Dragon while the others back away, but kept their guns raised enough to quick shot them. "What do you want?" The commander asked knowing that as they where they could take on the man who had killed more XCOM operatives than any other individual or unit combined.

Dragon simply crosses his arms and holds up a hand to which everyone points a weapon at him and the commander holds his own hand up. "Stalemate." Dragon speaks as they all stared down each other.

The commander gives a dry chuckle. "I got two psi units on this team who can use the null lance. I'm one and you can bet my first target will be you."

Dragon seems to smirk. "I see. Then I should tell you that I have gunships with missile locks on this area, snipers covering us from multiple angles, and another five squads on standby only a couple minutes out. Plus, you know that at this distance I can kill you before you shoot off your psi lance." The man replied matter of factly.

The commander flinched before giving a frown. "I see… so you have us in checkmate then."

The Dragon nodded his golden eyes triumphant but also regarding the commander with a great amount of respect. "That's about right, yes." There was a pause where nobody spoke and the XCOM team waited with baited breath as what would happen next. Excetra shifted closer to Nick and used the tip of her tail to give his leg a quick squeeze wanting to be near her mate if this was truly the end.

The Dragon seemed to catch this little play-by-play and gave the pair a small smile before shifting his piercing gaze back to the commander. "So do you want to walk to the nearest checkpoint with us and call in X-Com or do you want to fly right back?" He asked as his forces lower their weapons or turn them off for the dog like aliens.

The commander raised an eyebrow as his team kept their weapons trained on them. "I don't think I can walk for that long so a flight would do nicely." He says calmly and they look to him shocked.

"Commander?" Nick asks as Excetra slaps herself hearing that.

The commander chuckles and reaches out and puts a hand on Dragon's shoulder. "This guy is done with the whole Advent thing. I can tell." He says shocking them that he's touching Dragon's shoulder like a friend would.

Dragon smiles. "Excellent." He says before raising a hand to an ear bud and calling in four dropships which were quickly boarded by his troops. Waving them over to one of the dropships the team boarded the craft along with the Dragon himself and two of his men.

The commander chuckles a bit. "I'm guessing you know now what ADVENT's true goals were."

Dragon nods. "Had my suspicions for a bit. When you guys were kicking so much ass my unit was called into black sites to clean up the damage. There I began to see signs that ADVENT wasn't telling us everything. Never acted on it openly though I did manage to quietly investigate matters along with a few others. Not until you were plowing the field with us did it all happen."

The commander smiled. "So I take it you're on our side now?"

The Dragon nodded. "Yeah the 77th HVG has officially defected along with other forces and are helping in the battle."

"What battle?" Nick asked in confusion along with the rest of the XCOM squad.

The Dragon looked at them in surprise before he smiled. "You have no idea what your little presentation video earlier started do you?"

"Central, what's happening out there?" The commander asked also wanting to know.

"It's unbelievable commander. Battles have broken out all over the globe in every major city. ADVENT forces are turning on each other and the civilian and resistance forces are routing the enemy on all fronts." Central exclaimed in joy as he watched event though the monitor at the base.

* * *

Two advent soldiers stood guard at a checkpoint until they see a civilian slowly up to them with a bat over his shoulder and don't notice more civilians coming up onto the towers and takes down the guards there as the two were preoccupied with dealing with the bat wielding one until they looked back and saw the group of civilians had captured the building behind them and hoisted the XCOM flag.

* * *

"Fighting continues across the globe as ADVENT forces desperately try and hold back the insurrectionist attack." A reporter stated as the screen behind her showed ADVENT units desperately retreating while under fire. "ADVENT forces have also begun fighting defectors calling themselves the United Earth Alliance. This groups have already pushed ADVENT peacekeepers out of major cities like San Francisco, USA, Washington, USA, Paris, France, and Sydney, Australia."

* * *

"All resistance forces, do not give up, continue the fight! We can win this!" A woman with the resistance says in a broadcast to other resistance cells across the world.

* * *

"Do not let these interlopers destroy everything we have accomplished!" Screamed an Ethereal to all remaining ADVENT forces as the spaceship he was on shook from another barrage of fire from the enemy fleet fighting him.

* * *

"This world belongs to all of us not just the Elders! All units of United Earth Alliance continue to push forward! Push them from our world!" A female Ethereal ordered from the bridge of the battleship as her ship riddled the enemy flagship with fire. Her fleet pressed forward as the enemy flagship exploded from the combined fire forcing the remaining ADVENT space forces to separate and make them easy pickings for her ships.

* * *

"All remaining ADVENT forces, lay down your arms and surrender. You know you have lost. The Elders are either dead or have abandoned you, they never cared about our future anyway! As queen of the Viper peoples and Commander of the 3rd Viper Core, I am demanding that all Advent forces lay down your arms and surrender." A blue scaled viper announced as she reasoned for the remaining ADVENT forces to surrender.

* * *

"Enemy in retreat!" A man in the 77th HVG maroon armor announced as his squad and the civilians around them continued to rain down fire upon the remaining ADVENT forces who were running across a bridge out of the city.

Another man from the same unit smiled before announcing over the communications net. "This is Sergeant Major Hopkins of the 77th HVG. Enemy forces are in full retreat and pulling out the city! New York is ours! I repeat New York is ours!" He exclaimed as his squad mates cheers joined those of the civilians.

* * *

Back in the dropship, the XCOM team sat in stunned silence at all the new information. The commander sighs as he kept typing in information. "So many things will change now."

Dragon nods. "Yes, they will, but on behalf of all of the people formerly under ADVENT I wanted to say thank you." The commander and the rest of his team looked up at him in shock. "You were all branded as traitors, terrorists. Nobody believed or wanted to believe that the Elders were evil and yet despite all of that, you persevered. Despite all of ADVENT's best attempts to stop you, you not only managed to keep going but also win and open our eyes to the truth. So thank you XCOM on behalf of all of us." The Dragon stated with a salute which was mirrored by the two other soldiers in the dropship.

The Dragon looked out the window and saw they were approaching the Avenger. "Well, it looks like this is your stop. I'm needed in the battle for Geneva so I'm dropping you off here. Before I doc I just wanted to inform you that all of your criminal records have been expunged and XCOM officially recognized as an independent military force. I hope that you will decide to join the United Earth Alliance once things calm down. In the meantime…Excetra." The Dragon called looking to the viper who tensed up at his gaze.

The Dragon smiled. "On behalf of the newly installed Queen Vissta of the viper people, I am happy to tell you that the queen has rescinded your banishment and reinstated you as a proud member of the viper people and given you her blessing." The Dragon reported to an overjoyed Excetra who practically killed Nick with the strength behind her hug.

"Help…me…" Nick breaths out as he tries to enjoy the hug.

The Dragon shook his head at the scene before feeling the dropship land on the Avenger and the doors open, allowing the XCOM team to disembark. "Oh and Commander!" The Dragon called as the dropship began to rise. The commander looked back and saw the Dragon give him a salute. "Vigilo Confido!" He shouted before the dropships doors closed and the craft sped off into the afternoon sky.

"What the hell does that mean?" Owl asks looking to the commander.

The commander smiled. "It's the XCOM slogan. It means 'I am watchful. I am relied upon.'…huh. Vigilo Confido indeed."

Nick groans as Excetra hugs him tighter. "What…now?"

The commander turns toward him and grins behind his mask. "Now. You get your pay."

Nick blinks and Excetra looks to the commander a bit confused.

* * *

 **I just want to give a shout out to Vantage77 for helping write his characters and parts into my story. He suggested I place his characters in and I agreed. I thought, why not? Could be fun. And boy is this a journey for me. Now don't think this is over just yet. I still have one more to do and you can bet it will be fun for all.**


	15. Epilogue: Lay Down

_**7 Years Later**_

Excetra fiddles with her bright green blouse carefully as she adjusts the red scarf around her neck and pats down her dark yellow long skirt around her waist before smiling as the bell rings and out pours a sea of kids from the school before spotting the one she was looking for. "Milina." She hisses and the child looks up and runs toward her.

The half viper child with a long red scaled tail where her legs should be and only above the waist was the human half of her, where she was wearing a bright yellow blouse and a jean skirt that her father was able to make up while patches of red scales were on her cheek that looked like claw marks that shone bright red in the sun. "Hi, mommy. Where's daddy?" Milina asks looking around.

Excetra smiles. "Busy. He will…be…back soon. Come." She says taking her hand and leads her to a large van which was acquired through a rather different channel.

Milina giggles as she slithers in and gets into the backseat as Excetra sets up the destination before the van drives off on its own before her seat turns and looks to Milina. "How's…school?"

Milina smiles greatly as her tail flicks around happily. "Great. I was even able to stick it to that mean jerk. Lunch boxes make good clubs."

Excetra sighs as she places a hand over her face. "What did…we…talk about?"

Milina groans out loud. "Never attack somebody unless necessary. But I had a good reason."

Excetra crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow at that. "I'm waiting."

Milina pouts. "He called you a stinky alien that started this war. I know my mommy would never do that."

Excetra stares at her before sighing. "He's right…in…one way. But…he doesn't…know the…whole…story."

Milina smiles proudly. "And that's why I kept hitting him over the head and swept his legs out from under him. The second part he tripped over my tail." Milina quickly explained as she chuckles nervously from the look Excetra was giving her.

Excetra slowly shakes her head and her seat turns back around. "Father…will have…words…for you." Milina slouches at that as she is now dismayed at the news. "Nice…job." Excetra finishes smirking as she looks into the rearview mirror and sees Milina perk up.

* * *

Nick yawns as he steps through the front door in his street clothes of a blue button down shirt and dark blue jeans as he looks to the large farm as the workers and automatic equipment was working in the fields and animals. "Ah geez. There better be a princess working that game to death." He calls out humorously and hears a giggle. "That better be a gamer killing it." He says walking in and drops some files onto the key table nearby.

Milina peeks over the couch and looks over to him. "Hi, daddy. I've killed two games today."

Nick raises an eyebrow. "Did you now? What were they?"

Milina blinks and stops as she rubs the back of her head. "Um…they are…"

Nick nods. "No dessert for you."

"Aww!"

Nick chuckles as he walks by. "Don't push yourself, sweetie." He says smirking as he walks into the kitchen and sees Excetra at the stove. "Okay. What's the problem now?" He asks walking up to her.

Excetra sighs and turns to him. "Fight."

Nick rolls his eyes. "Really? Was it a fight that escalated to a fire fight?" He asks and Excetra just stares at him. "Fist fight?" He asks again and Excetra keeps staring at him. "Verbal?" He asks getting slightly confused and gets the same look. "Come on. Not even a rap battle? Geez." He groans out as he rubs his head. "Was it about the war at least?" He gets a nod as an answer. "Of course, it is. Even after all this, there are still old die-hards who will never let it go." He says looking outside to see a muton carrying a cow over its shoulder to the barn. "At least there are safe havens made by XCOM for this."

Excetra nods and looks to him. "Happy still?"

Nick smiles and wraps an arm around her waist. "You know the answer to that. Now then…you didn't sneak a dessert to her, did you?" Excetra smirks at that. "You did. Didn't you?"

Excetra snickers as she turns her head away from him. "Maybe." She hisses slyly still snickering.

Nick smirks and brings her in closer. "Tell me. What did you give her?"

Excetra shakes her head. "Not telling."

Nick taps her side. "Tell me."

Excetra giggles. "No." She hisses and slithers her tongue out at him.

Nick grins. "Tell me or I will keep my hugs and kisses away from you."

Excetra smirks. "You won't. Because…I will…just do…this." She says poking his chest and wrapping her tail around his legs.

Nick looks down and smiles at her. "And I will pounce and have some fun. We never did the whole kitchen routine and I do think that apron will look hot on you."

Excetra eyes the pink apron hanging from a hook nearby. "That? On me?" She asks leaning her head close to his.

Nick nods as she slithers her tongue out and licks his cheek. "Yes. The loving housewife. Great look. Am I right?"

Excetra leans to his ear. "Tonight." She whispered before kissing his cheek and pulls her head back as they hear some slithering and looks to see Milina coming around the corner. "Yes…honey?"

Milina blinks as she sees her mother's tail around her father's leg. "Are you two going to ask me to go to sleep early again?"

Nick chuckles. "She doesn't miss a beat and we can't trick her like the old days."

Excetra nods and picks up Milina before setting her on the table. "Hungry?" She asks tapping her nose.

Milina nods. "Yeah. Meat?"

Excetra smiles. "Meat."

"Yay!" Milina cheers before they heard the doorbell ring. "I got it." She says getting off the table and slithers to the door and opens it before gasping happily. "Uncle Commander!" She cheers.

Both Nick and Excetra leans over the doorway and sees the commander still dressed in a cloak that covers his face in shadows. "Hey, kid. You being a good girl for your parents?"

Milina nods. "Yep. Did you bring anything?"

The commander chuckles and reaches into his cloak and takes out a sunhat. "Here. Enjoy." He says putting it on her head before walking inside. "Permission to enter? Too late." He says walking up to the two as Milina looks at herself in the mirror with her new hat.

Nick sighs. "Hey, commander. Everything is fine, right?"

The commander nods. "Yep. There are still some pockets, but we are taking care of it easy. They are not as organized as we were back in the day. So you two doing well here?"

Excetra nods. "Thank you…for coming."

The commander chuckles. "You guys are coming to the wedding, right?"

Nick smiles. "Wouldn't miss it. It's not every day you get to see an owl and a fish get married."

The commander grins and they knew it. "They said something about you cracking a joke like that. What was it? Oh yeah. Got a broom?" Excetra blinks before giving him a small broom from nearby. "Thanks." He says before smacking Nick on the head. "Hit him if he cracks a joke about our nicknames."

Nick groans as he lays on the ground. "Should have known."

Excetra smiles as she wraps her tail around him and picks him up before wrapping an arm around him. "Learn." She says poking his head.

Nick rolls his eyes. "You know I won't."

The commander chuckles. "Good thing you still have your attitude."

Nick nods and looks to him. "So…when are we going to expect your wedding?"

The commander smiles. "You know me, Wolf. I don't hurry."

"It's been seven years." Nick points out.

The commander rolls his eyes. "And I still love dating Shen. She's not complaining either. Besides, I would rather wait a bit more until I can ask her."

Nick chuckles once. "Best of luck to you then."

The commander nods and looks toward Milina playing her video games again. "Any problems?"

Excetra shakes her head. "No. Healthy."

Nick smiles. "Thanks for helping out with the genetic things. If you haven't, I would still have an arm."

The commander smirks. "Well, I didn't know how your girl here would act. Besides, I call that a happy break. Only you don't relax to relax."

Excetra chuckles. "Overjoyed…more like."

The commander sighs. "Well, I better be going. Tell your daughter that I'm leaving some money on the game account. Just not now." He says smirking as he walks off.

Nick grins. "No problem commander." He says as Excetra waves at him.

Milina peeks over the couch. "Bye uncle commander."

The commander stops and turns to her. "See ya kid. Kick some tail on those things." He says seeing the game before walking off.

Milina waves after him. "Bye uncle." She calls before turning to her parents as the door closes. "Dinner?" She asks hopefully.

Excetra chuckles and slithers off and drags Nick along with her. "Um…honey?"

* * *

Excetra stares at the trophy wall where some of Milina's trophies from the school stood before looking up to the two swords crossed over each other and then the plasma shotguns hanging beside them and lightly runs a claw over her old blade as she also looks to the armors on mannequins on both sides of her with one a viper mannequin with her XCOM armor over it and a human one with Nick's old warden armor.

"Thinking about it huh?" Nick asks walking in and sits in the study chair as he watches her run a claw over his sword now.

Excetra slowly nods before turning to him. "Time…passes."

Nick shrugs. "It has to. How else would we move on? Missing the life, though?"

Excetra shakes her head before slithering over to him and sits on his lap and leans on him. "No more…blood."

Nick hums as he brings up a hand and runs a finger across the scared cut above her chest. "It might come back. Remember what the Elders said before the commander blasted them all away. We might have to go back one day so let's just enjoy the time of what we have now."

Excetra nods before moving her tail behind a table and brings out a pink frilly apron. "So…fun?"

Nick chuckles. "Sure. I wouldn't mind here either." He says pulling her scarf off and puts it on the table nearby. Excetra chuckles as she takes off her shirt and throws it onto the table as well before slipping the apron on as Nick helps take off her skirt and slips it off by undoing a zipper and places it onto the pile. Nick smiles as he looks her over. "Yep. Still the same sexy lady I fell in love with."

Excetra smiles as she wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him while in another room of the house, Milina wears a pair of headphones as she plays on her own computer that her uncle made for her personally with his words of 'You'll love the upgrades soon enough,' and boy it is loud as she blasted away another spaceship.

* * *

Down on the dark ocean floor of the wreckage of the alien advent base, capsules that are long since dead started to glow purple. Soon the aura around the starts to move off the capsules and into the large crack nearby the monument statue of the elders as the crack starts to glow bright purple and sends out a small pulse of psionic energy as a deep roar was heard and tendrils of psi energy rises up from the deep crack and reaches out as the energy pool in it glows brighter and the cracks starts to grow.

* * *

 **Well wasn't that fun. I had a blast making this story. And I want to thank my editor, Dragonsoul1, for helping out and making sure I don't muck up and make things worse. This is actually the first story where I had to write it all in present tense and it wasn't easy as my mind still has some context as 'said.' I also want to thank Vantage77 for using his characters in the story. I must admit, it might be fun to combine some of the stories and make a little fanfic universe. But we are not that devoted.**

 **Now onto other news, yes. With this ending of the game and the story, you can bet I'm going to be back for a possible Terror from the Deep game remake. Who doesn't love a good xcom vet and a viper together? About all of rule 34. Yeah, I go to the dark ends, but I still come crawling out for more if I get hit with it when it's not excepted.**

 **As for the other news, this was being made while I was doing Zootopia and it's still the same fun. The facts and information on each of these animals are sometimes hard to figure out and I had to make a few changes. But it seemed to make the story all the more exciting.**

 **So I hope you had a lot of fun reading this story as I had writing it. Good luck to your life. Watch for the squeal if the game happens. And check out my other stories if you want. If you don't want to, I won't be hurt by it.**

 **See ya next time.**


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